Anti-corruption agencies have called for a probe of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation, following an allegation of deep-rooted corruption in the agency by its Chairman, AbdulHakeem AbdulLateef.
The Chairman, Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, Debo Adeniran, on Monday, called on the Federal Government to probe the corruption in the NDIC.
He admitted that every government agency had some elements of corruption, saying, “There is no agency in Nigeria that is not ridden with one form of corruption or the other.”
He further asked the Federal Government to investigate the allegations made by the NDIC chairman and ensure due diligence was done to tackle the issue appropriately.
Adeniran said, “That agency must be probed. The allegations levelled by the author of that footage should be thoroughly investigated. While the veracity of the allegations is established, we expect that the administration will not want to go in the same way of parody and anomie that the previous administration had gone in the way they handled manifest corruption allegations.
“I believe the administration will go a step further in ensuring that due diligence is done at the level of investigation and diligent prosecution that will lead to conviction, which will attract maximum punishment.”
Also, the Centre for Responsible Governance, called for the probe of the NDIC, saying the allegations raised by the chairman were weighty and compelling.
The Executive Secretary, CFRG, Bolaji Adekunle, said, “The allegations and issues raised by the NDIC chairman in the post are very weighty and heavy. There is a need for the responsible authorities to launch a probe into the activities of the NDIC. Specifically, there is also a need to examine the new Act properly.”
The Chairman, Board of Directors, Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation, AbdulHakeem Mobolaji Abdullateef, had raised the alarm over what he described as monumental fraud that had been perpetrated through the new act of the NDIC.
He said the new act was fraudulently passed 48 hours before former President Muhammadu Buhari handed over power and that a cabal within the system designed it that way to have their way, noting that the NDIC currently “stinks” as a result of deep-rooted corruption.
Abdullateef wept as he disclosed this in a Facebook post on Monday, and called on President Bola Tinubu to carry out a thorough investigation into his allegations.
According to him, with the new act, the hands of the President have been allegedly tied as only the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria can be the Executive or Managing Director of the NDIC, contrary to the free hand given to the President in the former act to appoint any competent person to head the board.
