Lawyer Advocates N500 Anti-Corruption Levy To Fund ICPC

ICPC Chairman Mr Ekpo Nta with the pioneer Chairman of ICPC ,Justice Mustapha rtd at the Public Presentation of ICPC Law Report.

A lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, Abiodun Layonu, has called for the introduction of a special “anti – corruption levy” of N500 to address the challenge of inadequate funds confronting anti-corruption agencies in the country.

Layonu, who was guest lecturer at the public presentation of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC’s Law Report held in Abuja, lamented that insufficient funds was a major setback in the campaign against corruption.

He said that the levy should be a single one-off annual deduction on all existing current accounts having a balance of over N5,000.

This he said was one way through which every person would make contribution to the collective contribution to the collective fight against corruption.

“The resultant fund will be in billions to supplement the budgets of the anti-corruption agencies,” the guest lecturer said.

He further explained that the levy will be deducted with clear narrative by the banks and credited centrally to a specially dedicated and designated account and administered by a body set up for that purpose for the benefit of the anti-corruption agencies.

Layonu also recommended that the ICPC should have a share of the Education Trust Fund because of the commission’s education and public enlightenment mandate just as he said the agency should be able to receive direct funding from fines, penalties and forfeitures imposed after conviction.

Also speaking at the occasion, the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, called for better partnership among all the anti-corruption agencies in the country and assured the commission of the readiness of the Police to partner with them.

In his opening remarks, the ICPC chairman, Ekpo Nta, said that the presentation represented a very important milestone in the annals of the commission in its fight against corruption

He said in producing such a Law Report, the ICPC had taken a bold step towards establishing that cases of corruption have actually led a lot of people to jail for various terms of imprisonment.

Among prominent personalities at the event werepioneer chairman of ICPC, retired JusticeMustapha Akanbi; former attorneys general, Kanu Agabi and Akin Olujimi; former acting chairman of the ICPC, Uriah Angulu; the secretary of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Emmanuel Aremu as well as judges from various courts.