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Tag: Itse Sagay

  • Buhari sends message to PACAC Chair, Itse Sagay at 80

    Buhari sends message to PACAC Chair, Itse Sagay at 80

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday rejoiced with foremost scholar, teacher, legal luminary, author, and anti-corruption crusader, Prof. Itsejuwa Sagay, as he turns 80 on Dec. 20.

    President Buhari’s spokesman, Femi Adesina, said in a statement issued in Abuja that the president also rejoiced with the Sagay family, the academia, the legal profession and all friends and associates of the Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee against Corruption.

    He noted that Sagay’s integrity and commitment to transparency marked him out as a Nigerian of sterling character.

    “You have always stood by this administration, particularly in our avowed commitment to fighting corruption, and this you do without fear or favour,’’ he stated.

    He wished the author of many books, including the epochal “The Nigerian Law of Contract’’, good health, longer life, and further contributions to jurisprudence, even as he serves God and humanity.

    Buhari noted that Sagay, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, on the basis of his academic works, was a high flyer, recording best academic performances in the university and at bar examinations.

    He urged younger generations to emulate Sagay’s excellent performances and set same as standards for themselves.

  • NDDC: Sagay wants IMC sacked, governing board inaugurated

    NDDC: Sagay wants IMC sacked, governing board inaugurated

    Following the roiling saga of the large scale fraud, financial recklessness and incompetence of the Interim Management Committee of the NDDC, more leaders of the Niger Delta region have questioned the propriety of having the IMC in place and called for its disbandment.

    Giving his view on the saga, the Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to sack the Interim Management Committee of the Niger Delta Development Commission.

    Speaking with Channels TV, Prof Sagay said: “I will suggest that everybody there should be cleared out so that a permanent board and management can be established in the place that will then be monitored. My view is that everybody should be removed right now.”

    Going further, Sagay questioned the rationale in not putting in place a substantive Board to manage the Commission and supervise the forensic audit, which the president ordered. In his words, “I do not see why forensic auditing cannot take place when you have a regular Board. I don’t see the point in having this temporary (Interim Management Committee) which is an anomaly and which has proved to be a disaster.”

    Niger Delta groups have long called on the president to disband the IMC which was pushed by the Niger Delta Minister Godswill Akpabio to supervise the forensic audit, but which has proven to be a smokescreen for mind boggling stealing and mismanagement. The groups argue that the IMC is illegal since there is no provision for it in the NDDC Act. In October 2019, President Buhari nominated members for the Governing Board of the NDDC, 15 of whom were confirmed by the Senate on November 5, 2019.

    The ongoing investigation by committees of the Senate and House of Representatives has uncovered financial recklessness, abuse of office and incompetence by the IMC in the last eight months since it was appointed.

  • Sagay tackles FG, insists South West Govs’ ‘Amotekun’ legal

    Chairman of Presidential Advisory Committee against Corruption, PACAC, Prof. Itse Sagay, has declared the establishment of Operation Amotekun by Southwest governors as legal and in line with their constitutional role as chief security officers of their states.

    His position opposed that of the Justice Minister and Attorney-general of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, who declared the security outfit illegal.

    Governors from Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Ondo, Ekiti, and Lagos States last week Thursday in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital launched a security outfit called Amotekun.

    Sagay in an interview with The Nation said the Police lacked adequate manpower to effectively secure a country of nearly 200 million people, hence the establishment of Amotekun was in order.

    “I am positively disposed towards it. I think it is a good beginning not to depend completely on the Federal Government for our security.

    “We should begin to rely more and more on ourselves so that those who feel the pain are those who try to take control of the security situation.

    “We know that the Police are few; they are stretched; we have about 250,000 policemen in a country of almost 200 million. So, I think these regional security institutions are necessary.

    “I believe the police should cooperate with them and help with their training. And I believe eventually, they should even be armed so that we can have a lot more hands and local people involved in security.

    “Perhaps that can lead to other benefits, such as economic cooperation and wealth creation; and gradually, we’ll begin to regain what we lost when we lost the regions in the 60s. So, yes, I support it.

    “It’s not state police. I think the people who created it have been careful. *Yes, there is a security outfit, but there is nothing in the Constitution that precludes either states or association of states from taking care of their security.*

    “There is this popular saying that the governor is the chief security officer of a state. That’s not an empty statement.

    “They get a lot of money for security, and I look at this as part of the responsibility of the governors acting jointly to provide greater security in the Southwest.”