The Presidency has directed the acting chairman of the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), Barrister Murtala Kankia, to continue in office until a decision is taken on appointment into the office on substantive basis.
The directive by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume, and the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Mr Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), has upended the move by another member of the Bureau, Hon Ehiozuwa Johnson Agbonayinma, to supplant Kankia.
The immediate past chairman of the CCB, Professor Mohammed Isah had handed over to Kankia, who is the most senior member of the Bureau, in line with the provisions of the Establishment Act.
But THE CONCLAVE reports that Hon Agbonayinma had embarked on a subterranean move to displace Kankia so he could assume the position of acting chairman.
Investigations have disclosed that Kankia was appointed into the CCB in 2018 when Agbonayinma was still a member of the House of Representatives. Agbonayinma was in the House from 2015 to 2019 during which he represented Egor/Ikpoba-Okha federal constituency of Edo State.
Kankia was appointed in 2018 and served until 2022 when he resigned to participate in the primaries of the APC in Katsina State where he lost and was reappointed in February 2023 by then President Muhammadu Buhari, screened and confirmed by the Senate to continue in office.
The immediate past CCB Chair, Professor Isah had, as learnt, handed over to Kankia because he was deemed to be the most senior and most qualified to hold the office in line with the professional qualification specified in the Act for the position of Chairman of the Bureau.
The Act prescribes that “the chairman shall be a person who has held or is qualified to hold office as a judge of a superior court of record in Nigeria and shall receive such remuneration as may be prescribed by law.”
THE CONCLAVE reports that whereas Kankia is a lawyer of well over a decade experience, Agbonayinma is not a lawyer and could therefore not have stepped into the position for non-qualification.
But Agbonayinma had deployed subterfuge to snatch the acting chairmanship of the Bureau from Kankia: the federal commissioner from Edo State had, as learnt, made his first gambit of trying to ensure that a letter was written by the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation specifically stating that he was the most senior member of the bureau.
A permanent secretary in the office of the SGF, according to sources close to the development, frustrated his move by ensuring that his name, which was inserted by a director in bracket in front of the citation in the letter that the most senior member of the bureau should be handed over to, was expunged.
His plan, as learnt, was to arm himself with the letter (if he had succeeded in having his name specified in it) and confront Kankia with it.
It was learnt that Agbonyinma still confronted Kankia to intimate him with the fact that he had a letter that he should take over as the most senior member, but Kankia insisted he would like to see the letter, but Agbonayinma refused to avail Kankia of it.
If the office of the SGF had inserted the name of Agbonayinma, he would have effectively eased out Kankia.
Having failed in his first bid to upstage Kankia, Agbonayinma, as learnt, headed to the office of the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Mr Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, to make a case in aid of his appointment as acting chairman,
THE CONCLAVE gathered that Mr Fagbemi, whose office supervises the CCB, summoned Kankia to join Agbonayinma in his office where the issues were thrashed out.
Mr Fagbemi, as learnt, directed both Kankia and Agbonayinma to submit their respective position papers to the SGF to show how each of them qualified as the most senior member of the CCB.
He directed them to submit their position papers to the SGF, who has the final say on the matter.
However, Kankia was directed to continue to act in the office of the chairman pending the resolution of the matter.
Recall that Kankia had debunked, about a week ago, the claim that Agbonayinma, a former member of the house of representatives, had been appointed to replace him at the bureau.
On Thursday, last week, a letter purportedly signed by the SGF, announced the appointment of Agbonayinma by President Bola Tinubu as the chairman of CCB.
But in an internal memo released by Kankia, the acting chairman of CCB had described the letter as “fake, misleading and does not emanate from the office of the secretary to the government of the federation.”
Kankia had said he was the most senior ranking member of the bureau, adding that he remained the acting chairman of the agency until further directives from the presidency.
“My attention has been drawn to a circular which emanated from Hon. Ehiozuwa Johnson Agbonayinma, a federal commissioner claiming to have been appointed by the president and C in C of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu as Acting Chairman, CCB,” the memo reads.
“The truth of the matter is, Barrister Murtala Aliyu Kankia, having served for an initial Five (5) years term and was re-appointed as a member of the Bureau in 2018 and 2023 respectively, remains the most senior ranking member of the Bureau, hence he is now acting as Chairman pending further directives of the President to avoid leadership vacuum.
“Mr. Ehiozuwa Johnson Agbonayinma, serving for the initial 5 years appointed in 2021, cannot in any ramification claim seniority over the current Ag. Chairman (Murtaala Kankia).
“Determination of seniority between Murtala A. Kankiya, Barr. Benedict Umeano and Hon. Ehiozuwa Johnson Agbonayinma will be made by the SGF office, and whatever decision is taken in the best interest of the system and the country will be communicated formally to the Bureau by me and no other.
“Note further that the SGF letter did not specifically invite Murtala Kankiya to hand over to Hon. Ehiozuwa Johnson as falsely speculated.”
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