The Public Complaint Commission (PCC) said it received about 17,773 petitions against government agencies and officials across the country in the last one year.
This figure, the PCC Chief Commissioner (CC), Abimbola Ayo-Yusuf said, is beside the “hundreds of thousands complaints against various private sector organisations.”
Ayo-Yusuf, who spoke in Abuja while reviewing his first year in office, said the PCC under his watch, has improved on staff welfare, infrastructure, case management speed and was expanding the scope of the commission’s operation.
The PCC-CC said his commission received about 78,993 complaints in Abuja alone between July 5, 2021 and now, out of which it disposed of 41,330, leaving about 37,662.
He said: “As it relates to all the complaints so far received from both the public and private sectors, this commission had successfully handled a larger percentage of it all and I am glad to tell you that both the complainants and the respondents were duly satisfied on our mode of operations as it affects all the complaints that were amicably resolved.
“We are now assuring the public that the complaints that are still pending under review shall be sorted-out in due course,” he said.
The PCC-CC added that the noticeable rise in the commission’s complaint index within the last one year showed that his team has surpassed the what had been achieved before.
Ayo-Yusuf, who spoke about ongoing efforts to amend the PCC’s Establishment Act to broaden its scope and strengthen the commission, disclosed that his agency now has an enforcement unit, coupled with the power to operate mobile courts.
He said with the enforcement unit and mobile courts, the commission now has the teeth to bite recalcitrant respondents, who wilfully disregard its invitations.
Ayo-Yusuf also spoke about plans to establish a public complaint radio station and magazine (to be known as Ombudsman Radio and Ombudsman Magazine), and assured of his team’s willingness to do more if well financed.
“I will like to appeal to the National Assembly and the Executive to give the Public Complaints Commission (PCC), the nation’s statutory Ombudsman office, increase budgetary allocations annually in order to make the commission to dutifully discharge its lawful mandate more efficiently in the overall interest of the nation.
“This will also allow the commission contribute effectively in assisting our country’s leadership to bring about corporate discipline in all our socio-economic spheres, which would ultimately lead us all to good governance that shall also engender peace, security and prosperity in Nigeria,” Ayo-Yusuf said.