Mr Ehiozuwa Agbonayunma, a Federal Commissioner at the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), says the bureau will investigate cases of alleged corruption brought against its staff and justice adequately served.
Agbonayunma gave the assurance at a news conference in Abuja on Friday.
He said the allegation that a serving minister bribed some staff of the bureau with N100 million to stop the probe of an official of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) for failing to declare his assets since 2013 was grievous.
Agbonayunma, who also chairs a sub-committee set up by CCB to investigate the matter, said that the bureau had over time ensured that justice and fairness were brought to bear in the discharge of its constituted duties.
He said that the case before it would not be an exception.
“CCB is here to stay under the leadership of Prof. Mohammed Isa, who is the chairman and other nine members that make up the bureau.
“We are here to join hands with President Muhammadu Buhari, who had the wisdom to nominate us. The fight against corruption is going to include every Nigerian.
“We call on all Nigerians to join hands in the fight against corruption. Don’t forget that when you fight corruption, it fights back at you.
“This is where I appeal to all media organisations, civil society groups, law enforcement agencies and other stakeholders to join the CCB in the fight against corruption as the CCB cannot achieve it alone.
“Today, we have been given a mandate by the CCB to investigate the allegation against some officials of the bureau we saw on the social media,” he said.
Agbonayunma assured Nigerians that the committee would get to the bottom of the subject matter being investigated and do their job rightly.
He emphasised that nothing could stop the committee and the bureau from performing it duties, adding that the “CCB is not a toothless bull dog’’.
The commissioner stressed that the CCB had brought a former Chief Justice of the country to book.
He said that corruption was the major problem in the country; “as has eaten us deeply and requires total eradication’’.
“The committee is not to witch-hunt anyone, but to do its constituted duty of defending the constitution of Nigeria.
“We invited the minister involved in the matter, and in his wisdom, he came and gave us his own side of the story.
“All the accused parties remain innocent until investigation is over. We have equally done some in-house investigations and we shall dig out the facts of the matter.
“We are not holding anyone to ransom neither are we saying anyone has committed a crime.
“For now, it remains an allegation because at the moment, no one has proved to us that the minister gave money to some staff of the bureau,”Agbonayunma said.(NAN)