The Federal Government Thursday admonished the former Chairman of the Special Investigation Panel for Recovery of Public Property (SPIP), Okoi Obono-Obla, to stop whipping up public sentiments over his travail.
The Chairman of Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye, spoke yesterday in Abuja at a special town hall meeting on Fight Against Corruption, organised by the Ministry of Information and Culture.
Owasanoye was reacting to a letter by Obono-Obla accusing the Office of Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo of persecuting him because of his loyalty to President Muhammadu Buhari.
President Buhari, in August, suspended Obono-Obla for alleged “falsification of records and financial impropriety”.
ICPC had subsequently declared him wanted after he repeatedly failed to appear before the commission to answer questions bordering on allegations of fraud and corruption.
Reacting to Obono-Obla’s letter to the President on the alleged persecution, Owasanoye said it was a “shenanigan” to cover up for the allegations against the former SPIP chairman.
“The strongest defence for an accused person is to come out and say I did not do it. Any other defence is a shenanigan,” he said.
The ICPC boss noted that such allegation was common among politically exposed accused persons who liked to whip up religious, ethnicity and partisanship sentiments to cover up for their misdeeds.
He said some of such accused persons even paraded fake medical reports and gave excuses that they travelled abroad to circumvent their trial.
Owasanoye welcomed the move by the anti-corruption agencies to sanction any medical doctor that issues fake medical reports.
He added that reports of oversea travels by suspects would also be investigated to ascertain their veracity.
