by George Ozalla
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission and the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative have agreed to deepen their working relationship to strengthen transparency, accountability and integrity in Nigeria’s extractive sector.
The Chairman of the ICPC, Dr Musa Adamu Aliyu, SAN, gave the assurance in Abuja on Wednesday while receiving the Executive Secretary of NEITI, Hon Musa Sarkin Adar, and members of the agency’s senior management during a courtesy visit to the Commission’s headquarters.
Dr Aliyu described the relationship between both institutions as strategic and built on mutual respect, noting that the engagement underscored a shared commitment to ensuring that Nigeria’s natural resources are managed in line with acceptable standards of integrity. He said the Commission considers NEITI a key partner in tackling systemic corruption, particularly in the oil, gas and mining sectors.
According to him, NEITI’s audit reports provide critical data needed to trace revenue leakages and guide preventive, investigative and enforcement actions by the Commission. He pointed to the establishment of the Special Extractive Industry Desk within the ICPC as a practical outcome of the collaboration, explaining that the desk was created to act directly on issues raised in NEITI audits and ensure that findings translate into corrective action.
The ICPC Chairman said the partnership had moved beyond reporting irregularities to pursuing concrete remedies by aligning NEITI’s forensic data with the Commission’s investigative and prosecutorial mandate. He outlined plans to expand cooperation in areas such as real-time data sharing on illicit financial flows, joint system reviews in the solid minerals sector, and joint training programmes for investigators and auditors from both agencies.
Dr Aliyu noted that Nigerians expect the country’s natural wealth to support visible national development and said the ICPC-NEITI partnership remains one of the effective platforms for meeting that expectation. He assured NEITI of the Commission’s continued readiness to collaborate and expressed confidence that sustained engagement would deliver stronger results, according to a press statement signed by the ICPC spokesperson and Head of Media and Public Communications, J. Okor Odey.
Earlier, the Executive Secretary of NEITI, Hon Musa Sarkin Adar, said the agency had long recognised that transparency on its own was not enough without preventive frameworks and institutional accountability, especially in sectors with high corruption risks. He described the visit as timely as Nigeria prepares for the 2026 Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative validation exercise, which requires evidence of anti-corruption actions, follow-up on audit findings and responses to governance weaknesses.
Hon Sarkin Adar said NEITI was seeking sustained collaboration with the ICPC to ensure its reports are used for preventive measures, enforcement where necessary and monitoring of remedial actions arising from audit outcomes. He added that such cooperation was essential to demonstrating Nigeria’s commitment to accountability under the global EITI Standard.
He further noted that NEITI audits and policy recommendations have consistently highlighted systemic gaps, control weaknesses and corruption risks across the extractive value chain, stressing that the findings are meant to support investigations, reforms and preventive interventions within the ICPC’s mandate. He expressed optimism that closer collaboration between both bodies would help reduce corruption risks, improve sector governance and protect Nigeria’s extractive resources for long-term national development.
