Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, has challenged the chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, Musa Adamu Aliyu, SAN, to clarify the status of the alleged investigation of Mr. Shehu Dikko who has just been appointed by President Bola Tinubu as the Chairman of the resuscitated National Sports Commission which replaced the abolished ministry of Sports Development.
Its was recalled that the ICPC had on the 9th of October 2022, announced that they have seized property belonging to Shehu Dikko.
By then, Dikko was vice-president of the Nigeria Football Federation until he lost out a month before the public notice on his encounter with the ICPC was publicised by the anti-graft Commission.
The said seized house, located in Abuja said to be just one of several properties previously seized from former officials of the NFF, including president Amaju Pinnick, during a wide-ranging corruption probe in 2019.
The ICPC confirmed the seizure of Dikko’s property in a published advertisement in two national newspapers.
“The Commission is of the opinion based on the aforementioned investigation that this immovable property owned by Dikko is excessive having regard to his present and past emoluments and all other circumstances,” the ICPC statement had said.
Back in 2019, the ICPC told BBC Sport Africa it was looking into a wide-ranging claims over how money meant for football development had allegedly disappeared.
Dikko, who became NFF vice-president in 2015 and who doubled as the former chairman of the Nigeria’s top division, had hit back, with his legal representatives saying the allegations made against their client come with no evidence that any crime took place.
“This unfair media trial has been going on since 2019 when the ICPC published notices in newspapers for seizure of my client’s and his colleagues’ assets without any court order to back the forfeiture of my client’s assets nor inviting our clients to explain,” said Mohammed Sani Katu.
An ICPC spokesperson then said the agency will not engage Dikko and his legal representatives, who want an apology, in the media about this particular case.
With his recent appointment to a highly prestigious position almost equivalent to that of a minister as the Chairman of the National Sports Commission, HURIWA in a statement by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko said that in the true spirit of open government and full disclosure, that it is incumbent on the ICPC through the Executive Chairman to clarify publicly through a sworn affidavit on the status of the reported investigation in which the name of Shehu Dikko featured prominently even though his legal representatives kicked against what they considered as an orchestrated media persecution of their client.
“Nigerians deserve to know what has happened to the public notice by the ICPC on the said property of Shehu Dikko in the year 2022,” HURIWA said.
“This information is critical and essential especially with the appointment of Shehu Dikko into a Commission that has taken over the roles hitherto played by the Federal Ministry of Sports.
“In as much as we are not accusing Shehu Dikko of any illegality, we believe that since the ICPC had taken out publicly advertised notices on the seizure of his Abuja property, now that Shehu Dikko is elevated to a prestigious national office, the good people of Nigeria should be adequately briefed on the status of that investigation which was dismissed as a witch hunt by legal counsels of Shehu Dikko. Moreover since Nigeria has a freedom of information law, the ICPC is obligated to tell Nigerians all that they know on that matter and if it has been withdrawn then the ICPC should say so but apologise to Shehu Dikko.”
Peoplesmind
