Group Condemns N275m Graft Against Former Inspector General of Police

A group, People United for Societal Harmony (PUSH), has condemned, in strong terms, the alleged financial impropriety being levelled against the Chairman of the Police Service Commission and a former Inspector-General of Police, Sir Mike Okiro, by a staff of the agency. It would be recalled that Sir Okiro had been alleged to have misappropriated N275 million, being money belonging to the commission. He was, then, invited by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Commission (ICPC). 

The said staff has also recently raised the alarm of death threat to his life in the wake of the allegation. But, in a swift reaction to the allegation and the claim of threat to life by the author of the petition, PUSH, in a statement signed by its Director General and Co-ordinator, Dr. Sylvanus Ujumandu and Co-ordinating Secretary, Mrs. Sade Jaiyesimi Esq, described them as “spurious and lacking an iota of truth.” 

The statement read in part: “Our attention has been drawn to an allegation of alleged financial impropriety levelled against the highly esteemed person of Sir Mike Mbama Okiro, the sitting chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC) by one of the organisation’s staff, named Aaron Kaase, which led to the invitation of the PSC chairman by the Independent and Corrupt Practices and other related Commission (ICPC). 

“As expected, Sir Okiro’s invitation by the ICPC which was purely hinged on fact-finding promptly became a media meal with several misleading and screaming headlines. 

“We are however, pained and piqued that the said petition of alleged financial fraud against Sir Mike Okiro, emanating from a non-account staff of the Commission, was ill-motivated and purely aimed at smearing the sterling and unrivalled record of Sir Mike Okiro.”

 The group also revealed that the staff who wrote the petition had, not long ago, been arrested and arraigned for allegedly collecting various amount of money from unsuspecting person, under the guise of helping them to procure the visas of some European countries, a case from which Sir Okiro had stayed aloof, allowing the investigation against the said staff to take its normal course. 

The group also maintained that the accusation against Okiro was as a result of the latter’s refusal to mediate on behalf of the then accused. PUSH further said: 

“The man having been indicted in fraudulent practices, arrested and arraigned for his offence felt bad that the chairman of an organisation with which he works could not come to his rescue; forgetting that Sir Mike Okiro is a man of proven integrity, who will not condone any act of impropriety and corruption from any staff. 

That Sir Mike Okiro’s invitiation by the ICPC over the issue and his honoring same was in line with his belief in transparency and accountability. It was in this course that it was told that about half of the money in question said to have been misappropriated is still lodged in the Commission’s account which, Kaase, a non-account staff and a non-board member of the Commission was not privy to. 

Furthermore, the cry of threat to the life by the staff, after Sir Okiro had gone on air to clarify issues before well-meaning Nigerians, including heads of anti-corruption agencies is a clear case of guilty conscience; of a drowning man wanting to pull as many reeds as possible. His threat-to-life cry, therefore, is a ruse aimed at further smearing the character of Sir Okiro, a Knight of Saint John International of the Catholic faith – with a view to gaining sympathy where there is none.”