According to the ICPC chief, some of the affected properties include 62 houses seized from a female law enforcement officer. Investigation on the matter, he said, was ongoing, adding that some of the seized properties would be forfeited to the Federal Government when sufficient evidence has been adduced that the suspect acquired them fraudulently. Besides, Ekpo Nta said the Commission has successfully retrieved 40 vehicles that were stolen by retired Directors of the Federal Ministry of Water Resources and warned against trivializing the anti-graft war of the current administration. “There are many facets of corruption in Nigeria”, the ICPC chair noted, saying the Commission would stop at nothing to bring anyone found to have contravened the anti-corruption crusade to book. He said 400 of such cases were pending in various Courts, vowing that those found guilty at the end of the investigation would be made to face the full wrath of the law. Towards achieving a holistic action plan against the malaise in Nigeria, Ekpo Nta said the Commission has taken a step further by launching the campaigns in institutions of higher learning and the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC). For instance, he explained that the anti-corruption module has since been introduced into the curriculum of the University of Calabar (UNICAL), adding such measures would go a long way towards entrenching moral values in students. At the NYSC, the ICPC boss said the Commission has launched anti-corruption clubs in orientation camps, disclosing that such measures had assisted the Commission to detect and arrested no fewer than 42 fake corps members in the recent times. Governor Udom Emmanuel lamented that corruption has eaten seriously into the fabrics of the Nigerian system and stressed the need for all to be in the vanguard of curbing the menace. “We must change our mindsets about the way we do certain things”, he advised and assured whistleblowers to volunteer information on corrupt practices, saying the Commission would protect them. He frowned at what he described as illicit cash running into over 157billion Dollars leaving the shores of Nigeria abroad through fraudulent practices, saying “if only 7 billion Dollars is given to me, I can use it to create jobs and other infrastructural developments”. The Governor, who identified corruption as the greatest enemy of development, regretted the wholesale repatriation of illicit funds across the borders to develop other nations, lamenting that if such cash were domestically used, the socio-economic life on Nigeria and Nigerians, would have been positively impacted. He, therefore, enjoined well meaning Nigerians to join the ongoing crusade to rid the system of corruption and other economic crimes plaguing the country.]]>