●As Senate promises accelerated hearing of petition
Five Federal Commissioners of the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) have dragged the Chairman of the Bureau, Professor Muhammad Isah, through the National Assembly to the Presidency for alleged corruption, maladministration, non-functionality and collapse of law and order in the Bureau.
The concerned commissioners, who initiated the redemptive move, are Dr Emmanuel E, Attah, Professor Samuel F. Ogundare, Hon. Ehiozuwa J. Agbonayinma, Dr Olayinka Balogun (CP retired) and Barrister Ben Umeano.
They sent copies of their petition, dated August 29, 2022, to President Muhammadu Buhari, Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, and the Ethics and Privileges Committees of the National Assembly which exercise oversight on the CCB.
THE CONCLAVE reports that the Ethics and Privileges Committee of the Senate has indicated its readiness to expeditiously look into the petition against the CCB chairman, entitled: “Maladministration, non-functionality, corruption and collapse of law and order in the Code of Conduct Bureau: A call for an urgent intervention”.
A source close to the Senate Committee told THE CONCLAVE that it (the Committee) would accord the petition accelerated investigation and hearing.
The crux of the petition in respect of alleged maladministration has to do with the refusal by the chairman to allow the Board of the CCB to implement the provisions of the Standard Operational Procedure (SOP), which was developed in line with Section 160 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria consequent upon the provision of Section of 153 that gives the CCB and other agencies listed therein the powers to regulate their own procedures.
They alleged that the chairman’s refusal to adopt the SOP was a deliberate ploy to run the CCB as a sole administrator, stressing that that this was a gross breach of the law. They claimed that only one Board meeting had been held in 2022.
According to the Commissioners: “This is responsible for the low and poor performance of the Bureau since its inauguration.”
The Commissioners further alleged that “the Chairman does not allow assets declaration forms to be verified despite the readiness of the Bureau’s assets declaration departments for verification.
“The members of the Board had many times requested the Bureau to carry out verification exercise but the Chairman refused. This has made the Bureau to be ineffective and unproductive in the area of examining assets declaration forms received from declarants.
“The Bureau cannot show any achievements in this area since the inauguration of the current Board.”
They further alleged that in complete disregard for Section 3(d) of the CCB/CCT Act, “neither the Chairman nor the department of investigation has ever informed the Bureau of any petitions received and the outcome of the investigation of such petitions.
“It is only the Chairman and his Special Assistant, a non-staff member of the Bureau and a staff member of the Central Bank of Nigeria that handles all petitions without allowing the Bureau to have any knowledge petition received as well as the outcome of the investigation.
“The Chairman keeps all petitions and investigations secret to himself; hence, the Bureau does not come out with any reference or report of any defaulter charged to Code of Conduct Tribunal for violation of the Code of Conduct for public officers.
“In a situation where one or two persons are secretly carrying out the functions of the Bureau, compromise becomes inevitable.”
The concerned commissioners also pointed to the refusal by the Chairman to either set up committees in line with section 3 of the SOP or come up with an alternative strategy of running the Bureau in a transparent manner, pointing out that the Chairman neither set up the committees nor came up with an alternative strategy, thus creating room for compromise.
They also alleged that contrary to section 4 of the SOP, which deals with organization and staff members’ matters, “the Chairman in contravention of this section single-handed transfers staff members without reference to the Board and bypasses the Bureau members against the approved organogram of the Bureau.”
With regard to all funds of the CCB, which are supposed to be under the full control and management of the Bureau as provided for in Section 3 of the SOP, the petitioners claimed at page 7 of their petition thus: “the members of the Bureau do not know anything about the budgeting, award of contracts/procurement processes and every financial transaction in the Bureau.
“The Chairman does not advertise the award of contracts as required by law. In order to cover up for his non-compliance with the provisions of the Procurement Act, the Chairman fraudulently obtains a ‘Certificate of No Objection’ and alleges (claims) that the contracts in question are for security equipment. The so-called security equipment allegedly procured are not visible while the internally generated revenues are unaccounted for.
“Monies meant for monitoring, investigations, trainings, staff welfare have been diverted by (the) Chairman for his personal use. (There is) non-implementation of approval level for federal commissioners, directors, deputy directors, assistant directors, head of divisions, sections and units.
“Allowances and imprest due to staff members are not paid and it is also worthy of note to bring to your attention that the cooperative money of the staff members amounting to over N60,000,000:00 (sixty million naira) cannot be accounted for by the Chairman.”
They alleged that the Chairman “killed” all high-profile cases brought before the Bureau and appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari and other authorities to intervene in the matter to save the Bureau from total collapse, as “the Chairman, Professor Mohammed Isah, is deliberately derailing the wheel of progress in actualizing the aims and objectives of Mr President in the fight against corruption.”
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