The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) yesterday told the suspended Chairman of the Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property (SPIP), Mr Okoi Obono-Obla, to appear before it with a view to clearing his name.
Addressing newsmen in Abuja, ICPC Spokesperson, Mrs Rasheedat Okoduwa, accused the former presidential aide of resorting to propaganda against the commission instead of turning himself in.
Obono-Obla is on the ICPC wanted list for alleged corruption and abuse of office.
The anti-graft agency declared him wanted in October following his alleged repeated failure to honor the commission’s invitations.
However, he has reportedly denied the allegations and dismissed the action of the ICPC as an attempt to ridicule and embarrass him.
He is said to have also denied being invited by the ICPC for questioning before he was declared wanted.
Okoduwa said the commission was aware that the former presidential aide was back in the country, and was even sighted at an event recently.
She said:“We are aware that Obono-Obla has returned to the county, and everything he has been saying about the commission and its chairman.
“He is reportedly going about saying ICPC is a rival office to his own. I have people calling me to react on what he has said.
“The decent thing is for the gentleman to come to ICPC to clear his name. We have given him an opportunity to clear his name of the allegations against him.
“Come forward, let us hear your own side of the story. We have done our investigations and have facts. We want to confront him with these facts.”
She added that the commission had alerted security agencies to pick him up when seen to enable him to clear the air.
“Signals have been sent to all the law enforcement agencies. Whenever they see him I am sure they will pick him up,” she added.
