NGO urges Buhari to sign CIFIPN bill to enhance the fight against corruption

By Punarimam Fehintola

The Chartered Institute of Forensic and Investigative Professionals of Nigeria (CIFIPN) urges president Muhammadu  Buhari to sign the CIFIPN bill so as to help achieve more in the fight against corruption in Nigeria.

Mrs Victoria Enape the protem president of CIFPN disclosed this in Abuja at a dinner and award night organized for its members and other stake holders of the institute.

She further said it has concluded every arrangement to construct an academy to serve as the institute’s training ground for prospective members of the Institute and other forensic investigators.

According to her, the prospective members would be expected to undergo a one-year training and pass exams in three stages to qualify for professional membership, adding that they must be graduates in the relevant fields to qualify for admission into the academy.

“Considering our projection of a pacesetter status of CIFIPN, we are hoping to acquire land that will house a state of the art forensic training centre. The purpose of CIFIPN has been called into question while the naysayers have continued to blackmail and even procure the services of other professionals to discourage the government from doing the needful.

“We are more like never before persuaded that Mr. President will assent to the bill in no distant time; it is on this note that we plead with the president to see the urgency that is required in ensuring that the bill is assented to,” Enape said.

The CIFIPN boss also disclosed that the institute is working on establishing a well-equipped forensic laboratory for fraud investigation and analysis, appealing to stakeholders to, as a matter of priority help the institute in that regard.

She said, “This is no mean project; your support is most needed. At the moment, we are gradually running out of enough office space. We urgently need an office accommodation that will befit the status of CIFIPN; we are counting on your unalloyed support.

“Without any iota of doubt, our most ranked priority at the moment is to see that the CIFIPN bill is assented to by Mr. President.”

However, the Vice-Chancellor, Niger Delta University in Bayelsa State, Prof. Samuel Edoumiekumo urged Mrs Enape to allow the institute begin its operation in the institution, promising to facilitate a block of building to CIFIPN for its forensic training pending when the academy would be ready.

“I will want this institute to have their training at my university just as we have ANAN in Jos. Some of us are at the forefront of fighting corruption and detecting fraud. We need to incorporate forensic investigation into our university system and we can discuss with the National Universities Commission (NUC) to see how it can work,” Edoumiekumo said.