Nelson Okoronkwo, Muhammad Ahmad and Ikenna Nweke have been awarded the 2021 Public Service Integrity Awards at the 3rd National Summit on Diminishing Corruption in the Public Sector organised by the ICPC.
President Muhammadu Buhari presented the 2021 Public Service Integrity Awards to: Nelson Okoronkwo, Deputy Director, Legal, Federal Ministry of Information and Culture; Muhammad Ahmad, Assistant Commander of Narcotics, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA); and Ikenna Nweke, Nigerian Lecturer and PhD student at Tsukuba University in Japan.
Nelson Okoronkwo was recognized for his consistent acts of integrity in the different ministries where he served. He is a committee member on fertilizer distribution that led to the recovery of billions of Naira from racketeers with collaborators within the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
He was credited to have reported corrupt practices that led to the Ogoni cleanup investigation in the Federal Ministry of Environment.
As Committee Chairman on Illegal Recruitment in the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture, the Deputy Director facilitated the detection and removal of over 3,000 fake employers from the Service, thereby saving the government millions of Naira in terms of salaries and emoluments.
The NDLEA officer, Muhammad Ahmad, was recognised for demonstrating the highest ideals and standards of the public service in the discharge of his responsibilities. Also, a recipient of the Chairman/Chief Executive Award for Outstanding Performance and Integrity, Ahmad recently recovered and declared to his Agency the sum of $24,500 offered to him as bribe by a drug baron to compromise an investigation of 27.950 kg of cocaine, worth billions of Naira
Ikenna Nweke who found a wallet containing a very large amount of money and other valuables returned it to the Japanese police. He declined 10 percent of the money offered to him as a reward.
The Nigerian, who joined the event virtually from his base in Japan, was recognised for his act of “honesty and integrity”’ by the President.
On Nweke, President Buhari said:
“I am also happy to note the ICPC special award to Ikenna Steve Nweke, a Nigerian Ph.D student from Imo State studying in Japan.
He has done Nigeria proud in far-away Japan by displaying traditional Nigerian values of honesty and integrity and returning a wallet containing a very large sum of money and other valuables to the police.
He also declined 10% of the money found as a reward offered to him.
I join the ICPC in declaring him ICPC CITIZENS ANTI-CORRUPTION VOLUNTEER GROUP ICON.
He is indeed an icon and a beacon for our youths. I also congratulate all those to be awarded the ICPC Certificate of Integrity through their agencies.”
The Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), (in full the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission) is a Nigerian agency that was inaugurated on 29 September 2000. The mandate is to receive and investigate reports of corruption and in appropriate cases prosecute the offender(s), to examine, review and enforce the correction of corruption prone systems and procedures of public bodies, with a view to eliminating corruption in public life, and to educate and enlighten the public on and against corruption and related offences with a view to enlisting and fostering public support for the fight against corruption. The Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Act 2000 governs the committee’s activities.
