Court Upholds ICPC Act, Allows Probe of Ex-Lawmakers

On a significant legal ruling, the Federal High Court sitting in Umuahia, Abia State, rejected a constitutional challenge to the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) Act. This decision enables the ICPC to proceed with investigations into two former members of the Abia State House of Assembly, Hon. Kalu Chikwendu and Hon. Apugo Chukwudi, who sought to restrain the commission from inviting them for questioning regarding alleged corrupt practices.

The court dismissed their suits, marked as FHC/UM/CS/108/2025 and FHC/UM/CS/109/2025, which claimed that the ICPC's actions were inconsistent with sections 35 and 36 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended). The court affirmed that the ICPC has the statutory authority to investigate offenses related to corruption under section 28 of the ICPC Act and ruled that the plaintiffs' actions were an attempt to misuse judicial processes to evade legal scrutiny.

The court awarded costs of 500,000 against the plaintiffs.