Letter to Bauchi House of Assembly

Dear members, Bauchi State House of Assembly, representing the good people of different districts across the state. There is the need to establish an anti-corruption commission towards tackling corruption.

The House has passed for a second reading a bill for a law to establish the Bauchi State Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission.
The bill is an executive bill that aims at establishing an independent commission to be vested with the power to investigate either on its initiatives or complaints before it by any person on administrative action taken by any MDA or local government in the state.

When passed into law, the bill will pave the way for the commission to investigate any offence under the Penal Code that borders on corruption, financial crimes, abuse of office and offences relating to administration of justice, among others.

The commission will also be saddled with the responsibility of adoption and enforcement of resources to ensure transparency in the management of state government’s resources as well as freeze, confiscate or seize proceeds derived from acts of corruption.

Therefore, members of the House should be delighted with the bill that the commission can investigate into properties of any public servant within the jurisdiction of the state, if it appears to the commission that the person’s life style and extent of properties are not justified by the person’s legitimate source of income.

Lastly, if the bill becomes law, it will be of tremendous benefit to the entire citizens of the state and it will recover the state’s assets.

Hamza Sani,
Department of Mass Communication, University of Maiduguri.