The Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission has yanked off a statement declaring a lawmaker, Shehu Koko, wanted for corruption, from its website.
SaharaReporters had on Wednesday published a story on how Koko, a member of the House of Representatives panel that interrogated Prof Kemebradikumo Pondei, Acting Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, was declared wanted for corruption in 2019.
Koko was alleged to have fraudulently acquired properties using his position to confer undue advantage on himself while serving as ADC to a former governor of Katsina State.
REVEALED: Lawmaker On Panel Interrogating NDDC Acting MD, Pondei, When He Fainted Was Declared Wanted By @ICPC_PE For Corruption In 2019 | Sahara Reporters
Koko, a lawmaker from Kebbi State, was on December 12, 2019 declared wanted after he…
READ MORE: https://t.co/5dXdlAGTjM pic.twitter.com/NkXyHLnGWT— Sahara Reporters (@SaharaReporters) July 22, 2020
After he repeatedly failed to appear before the anti-graft agency over an ongoing investigation against him, the agency declared him wanted.
According to a statement on the commission’s website, https://icpc.gov.ng/2019/12/12/icpc-declares-hon-shehu-koko-mohammed-wanted/, the lawmaker failed to perfect his administrative bail and ignored the commission’s invitation.
A check by SaharaReporters on Wednesday evening, however, showed that the statement had been deleted from the commission’s website.
Shortly afterwards, the ICPC in a post on its Twitter handle on Wednesday night said the lawmaker was no longer a wanted person.
Honourable Shehu Koko Mohammed is no longer a âWanted Personâ as earlier declared by the Commission.
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila had in December 2019 pledged to make him available to the Commission, and he did.
— ICPC Nigeria (@ICPC_PE) July 22, 2020
However, the ICPC did not disclose how that investigation ended or make its findings public.
Koko has since carried on with his duty as a legislator in the House of Representatives and has been an active member of the panel probing financial misappropriation in the NDDC.
