6th September, 2018
Mr Chile Igbawua, Chief Commissioner, Public Complaints Commission (PCC) has vowed to be more strict in enforcement of sanctions on people who contravene its establishment Act.
Igbawua, who stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja, said that the strict enforcement would enable them deliver justice effectively.
He noted that many members of the public were not aware that the commission had the power to bring the full weight of the law on a person or organisation that impedes on the authority of the commission.
“We intend to be stricter in the applications of sanctions that are provided for in the act, because people believe that we don’t have the power to do anything to the person who did wrong.
“We will apply fully, the provisions of the sanctions both on direct and incidental actions; because the act provides that the work of the commission shall not be impeded.
“Built in that provision is that, if the commission makes a determination and you refuse to implement you are impeding our work because it is not finished, our work is finished when we have delivered the justice.
“We will proceed against you for contravening the PCC act, once we do that in a couple of cases and people become aware that we offer justice for free, they will begin to come to us for justice.’’
He noted that many agencies take the commission for granted by sending personnel that cannot conclude on cases, urging them to henceforth send competent partners.
He explained that the police would be used to compel people to panels if they refused to appear when summoned by the commission.
“We are not going to take lightly intransigency on the parts of respondents. We will bring down the full weight of the law on such persons.’’
He said that the commission was faced with the challenge of funding as paucity of funds hindered effective investigation of cases.
He noted that the work of PCC was movement intensive because officers needed to go to areas where complains come from as often as necessary for proper investigation and resolution.
According to him, ideally, there is need for a large fleet of vehicles and it includes all forms of vehicles that will easily take people to where clients are located.
He told NAN that the commission was currently working on a comprehensive welfare package to boost the morale of its staff.
“It is an agency that you may not be too high in rank but you are going with authority because the commissioners and investigation officers carry the full weight of the law and go out with immunity.
`’Therefore, they shouldn’t be seen moving in rickety vehicles, we need to put dignity into our staff. In an environment in which you have people doing this kind of jobs they have to be presentable.
“If it becomes necessary that there should be wardrobe allowance then why not, because we expect our staff to appear decent so that they will be respected.
“And we want our officers to work with the feeling that they have an organisation they can be proud of.’’