The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), has certified 42 Corruption Risk Assessors (CRA) with a view to empowering them to tackle corruption in private and public sectors.
The 42 CRAs, drawn from the Civil Society Organisations, anti-corruption agencies including ICPC were certified following a rigorous one-month training on Corruption Risk Assessment at the Anti-Corruption Academy of Nigeria (ACAN).
ICPC Chairman, Ekpo Nta who presented certificates to the assessors at the end of the programme enjoined them to use the knowledge acquired to improve the corruption rating of Nigeria.
Nta who was represented by the Secretary to the Commission, Dr. Elvis Oglafa, said that ICPC in conjunction with development partners embarked on the training because of the importance of having a large army of anti-corruption agents in Nigeria.
He emphasized importance of Corruption Risk Assessment , adding that the Commission was desirous of preventing corrupt acts by training more CRAs given that only 69 assessors had been trained before now.
He said, “CRA is a critical aspect of the prevention mandate of ICPC as contained in its enabling law. By this, the law affirms the adage that prevention is better than cure. I wish to charge all of you not to waste this knowledge; you should put it into practice to better the fight against corruption.”
Earlier, the Provost of the academy, Professor Sola Akinrinade, advised the assessors to be committed agents of anti-corruption while he urged them not to leave the fight against corruption in the hands of government alone.
His words, “We know what corruption has done to our nation. We do not want the fight against corruption to be a passing thing. We want it to be systemic; it does not have to go with individual leaders.
One of the certified assessors, Dr. Adeyeye Adewole, from a CSO, who spoke on his experience at the training academy lauded ICPC saying the training had put him in a better position to contribute to the fight against corruption in Nigeria.