Bayelsa Restates Zero Tolerance For Corruption

Bayelsa State has reaffirmed its zero tolerance for corruption in governance and cautioned residents against writing frivolous petitions to anti-graft agencies.

Deputy Governor, Peter Akpe, stated this on Tuesday, when he received the Resident Anti-Corruption Commissioner of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission, ICPC, in charge of Bayelsa and Rivers States, during a courtesy visit to the Government House, Yenagoa.

Akpe said the general perception of those in politics has always been that of corruption, but noted that the position of the Governor Douye Diri-led administration is non-tolerance for corruption.

The deputy governor, who frowned at the habit of writing unfounded petitions against individuals and groups, said the heap of petition files from Bayelsa State at the ICPC was several times higher than that from any other state in the country.

He reminded residents that writing unjustifiable petitions to anti-graft agencies is not only a bad culture but also attracts jail penalty, assuring the ICPC of the state government’s support to improve public enlightenment.

“Our government is a government that believes in zero tolerance for corruption; that is why we are always open to interact with you and other anti-graft agencies.

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“Usually, there is this issue of negative perception of politics and politicians. But it is not true that every politician is corrupt. We have a good number of people in politics that are not corrupt. And we believe that a good percentage of them are in this government.

“The issue of petitions at the ICPC: What we observed was that the heap of files from Bayelsa were 10 times higher than the ones from even Lagos, and 15 more times than the ones from Sokoto and other states.

“That is quite disturbing. Moreso, most of those petitions were frivolous. From a personal experience, I can tell you that most of the petitions are extremely frivolous. While we will never tolerate corruption, our people should also know that such frivolous petitions can land them in jail,” he said.

Earlier, the ICPC Resident Anti-Corruption Commissioner in charge of Rivers and Bayelsa States, Ekere Usiere, highlighted the statutory mandate of the ICPC, stressing that its mission is to carry out sensitisation on the ills of corruption in the Nigerian society.

Usiere, who expressed concern at the volume of petitions currently before the ICPC emanating from communities in Bayelsa State over the management of the PIA funds, expressed the commission’s desire to partner the state Ministry of Information to carry out sensitisation programmes.