Just in: CCB to drag Enugu governor-elect, Peter Mbah, through Code of Conduct Tribunal

The leadership of the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) rose from a crucial meeting Thursday evening with a resolution to charge Enugu governor-elect, Mr Peter Mbah, before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) for offences bordering on breach of the Code of Conduct for public officers.

The leadership meeting, THE CONCLAVE learnt, was presided over by the Chairman of the CCB, Professor Mohammad Isah. The meeting resolved to refer Mbah to the Tribunal after a painstaking review of the petition against him.

A source close to the development said that the authors of the petition written under the auspices of Enugu State Lawyers for Good Governance dated November 11, 2022 had earlier been interviewed and had adopted the petition as theirs.

The petitioner had alleged that Peter Mbah, who was Enugu State Finance Commissioner between 2005 and 2007, did not declare his asset with the CCB as constitutionally required before and after occupying the public office in the state.

THE CONCLAVE learnt that the CCB had invited Mbah on two different occasions to appear before a committee of the Bureau to be interviewed, but shunned both invitations.

The source said that the arraignment of Mba would happen within the next two weeks. He said a formal charge would be filed before the Danadi Umar-led Code of Conduct Tribunal.

It would be recalled that THE CONCLAVE had recently reported that the CCB was in receipt of petitions against three frontline candidates in the Enugu governorship election.

THE CONCLAVE had listed the three candidates as Peter Mba of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr Chijioke Edeoga of the Labour Party (LP) and Mr Frank Nweke Junior of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).

The crux of the separate petitions against the trio submitted to the Bureau some times last year, as reported, was their alleged non declaration of assets while they occupied public offices in Enugu State and at the Federal level.

A petition by Enugu State Lawyers for Good Governance dated November 11, 2022 said that Peter Mba, who was the State Finance Commissioner between 2005 and 2007, did not declare his asset with the CCB as constitutionally required.

In a petition dated November 8, 2022, by Enugu Transparency Network, the group claimed that Chijioke Edeoga as Commissione.r of Local Government Affairs between 2015 and 2022 failed to declare his assets

In its petition, dated November 8, 2022, Enugu Youth Against Corruption claimed that Frank Nweke Junior as Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Special Duties and Youth Development from 2004 to 2005, and as Minister of Information and National Orientation from 2005 to 2007 did not declare his assets at the CCB.