The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has again discovered another fake government agency.
ICPC Chairman, Musa Adamu Aliyu, disclosed the development on Friday while briefing State House correspondents at the Presidential Villa in Abuja. He identified the organisation as the National Brands Development and Made-in-Nigeria Special Project Office.
According to the anti-graft agency, the unauthorised body had been illegally allocated office space within the premises of the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF) without presidential approval.
Aliyu said the discovery was made during the commission’s ongoing investigation into the fictitious Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) and related procedural weaknesses in the public service.
He named Prince George Buchi Nwabueze as the alleged promoter of the fake agency. The latest find brings to four the number of alleged fictitious agencies uncovered by the ICPC in the series of probes that began earlier this year.
Following the briefing, President Bola Tinubu directed the immediate arrest of Nwabueze. The President also ordered the suspension of three permanent secretaries in the SGF’s office — M.S. Danjuma, Nadungu Gagare and Richard P. Pheelangwah — pending further investigations.
Tinubu further directed a forensic audit of government processes to identify and close systemic loopholes that allowed such entities to operate.
The ICPC stated that investigations into the matter and other related weaknesses in the public service remain ongoing.
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