PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari on Monday appointed Bolaji Owasanoye as the new chairman for the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission (ICPC).

 Owasanoye takes over from Musa Abubakar who was appointed in an acting capacity to head the ICPC in March 2018.

According to a press release by the agency’s head of media and publicity, Rasheedat Okoduwa,  the swearing-in ceremony took place in the State House, Abuja.

 President Buhari expressed satisfaction with the enabling conditions provided by the government for the ICPC to thrive.

“I’m particularly delighted that the ICPC law under which you will operate is robust enough to assist government to sanitise the public sector in service delivery, public procurement, diversion of public revenue, deliberate misuse of public funds, and so on,” he said.

The newly appointed chairman swore to enhance the fight against corruption and expose wrongdoing.

“The Chairman will be in office for a tenure of 5 years, which is renewable only once, while the Board Members have a 4-year tenure that is also renewable only once,” the statement added.

The Senate had, late last year, screened and confirmed Bolaji Owasanoye and other board nominees whose nominations had been pending for over a year.

The new board members replaced their predecessors who left office over a year ago.

The Members that were sworn in with Owasanoye are Grace Chinda (Delta State), Titus Okolo (Enugu), Obiora Igwedebia (Anambra), Justice Adamu Bello (Katsina).

Others include Olubukola Balogun (Lagos), Hannatu Muhammed (Jigawa), Abdulahi Saidu (Niger) and Yahaya Dauda (Nasarawa).

Owasanoye will be the fourth substantive Chairman of ICPC since its inception and has by the swearing-in taken over the reins of office from the acting Chairman, Dr. Musa Usman Abubakar, who is the Commission’s Secretary.