Some aggrieved Commissioners in the Code of Conduct Bureau are alleging that the management of the body has stolen cooperative Money of Staff amounting to N60 million thus accusing the Chairman of running CCB as a Sole Administrator, calling for an urgent Intervention as one of the Commissioner has resigns in Protest. The Commissioners who petitioned both the Senate and the House of Representatives, said that the Chairman in contravention of the provisions of the act establishing the CCB, has single- handedly transferred staff without reference to the Board and by passed the Bureau members against the approved organogram of the Bureau, adding that the National Assembly should as a matter of urgency intervene into the matter to save the Bureau from total collapse. In the petition, the Commissioners said that the allowances and impress due to staff are not paid, just as they said that the cooperative fund belonging to staff amounting to over N60,000,000 cannot be accounted for by the chairman. According to the petition board members do not know how many petitions are received by the Bureau as well as numbers of cases under investigation and numbers of cases charged to Code of Conduct Tribunal. All high profile cases brought before the Bureau are killed by the Chairman Prof. Mohammed Isah.
The petition dated 29th August, 2022 and signed by Dr. Emmanuel E. Attah; Professor Samuel F. Ogundare; Ehiozuwa J. Agbonayinma; Dr. Olayinka Balogun, CP, Retd and Barrister Ben Umeano, was addressed to the Chairman, Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, Senator Patrick Akinyelure, and his House of Representatives counterpart, Honourable Ossa Ossai. Following the crisis rocking the CCB, a member, Engr. Sa’ad Abdullahi, the Majidadin of Gombe has resigned from the board, accusing the Chairman of rendering other Commissioners redundant, running the place as a sole Administrator, just as he said that it became imperative for him to leave because of frustration, not in the know of the happenings at the board, not in the picture of the budget and how it was spent except the Chairman alone, using the staff. The former Commissioner who blew the lid off the alleged corruption in the Bureau, pointed the finger at Professor Mohammad Isah, alleging corruption by him, just as he exposed the corruption saga in CCB in a video recording that is trending on the social media. The petition by the Federal Commissioners to the National Assembly is titled, ” Maladministration, non- functionality, Corruption and Collapse of Law and Order in the Code of Conduct Bureau, a call for an Urgent Intervention.”
The petition read, “We, Federal Commissioners of the Code of Conduct Bureau wish to bring the following to your attention for your urgent intervention in order to save the Bureau from total collapse; The Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Acts C 15 LFN 2004 gave the Bureau the aims and objectives to “establish and maintain a High Standard of Morality in the Conduct of Government business and to ensure that the actions and behavior of public officer conform to the highest standards of public morality and accountability”. The Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) is an Anti-Corruption Agency created by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended. The Code of Conduct Bureau is among other Federal Executive Bodies established in the Third Schedule Part 1 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended. Section 153 Sub Section (1) There shall be established for the Federation the Code of Conduct Bureau and others. The Chairman in contravention of the provisions of this section single-handedly transfers staff without reference to the Board and bypasses the Bureau members against the approved organogram of the Bureau. Section 3 of SOP states that “All funds of the CCB shall be under the full control and management of the Bureau. 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 contract as required by law. In order to cover up for his non-compliance with the provisions of the public procurement act, the Chairman fraudulently obtains a “Certificate of No Objection” and alleges 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 uncounted for.
“Monies meant for monitoring, investigations, training, staff welfare have been diverted by Chairman for his personal use. Non implementations of approval level for federal commissioners, directors, deputy directors, assistant directors, head of divisions, sections and units. Allowances and impress due to staff are not paid, it is also worthy of notes to bring to your attention that the cooperative money of the staff amounting to over Sixty million Naira (N60,000,000) cannot be accounted for by the chairman. Board members do not know how many petitions received by the Bureau as well as numbers of cases under investigation and numbers of cases charged to Code of Conduct Tribunal. All high profile cases brought before the Bureau are killed by the Chairman Prof. Mohammed Isah. It is important to know that Mr. President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, having given us the opportunity to serve our dear Nation, it is very regrettable that Chairman Prof. Mohammed Isah is deliberately derailing the wheel of progress in actualizing the aims and objectives of Mr. President in the fight against Corruption. We humbly implore you to intervene into this matter to save the Bureau from total collapse.”
The petition further reads “Section 158 Sub Section (1) In exercising its power to make appointment or to exercise disciplinary control over persons, the Code of Conduct Bureau shall not be subject to the direction or control of any authority or person. Section 159 Sub Section (1) The quorum for a meeting of any of the bodies established by section 153 of this Constitution shall be not less than one-third of the total numbers of that body at the date of the meeting. Sub Section (2) A member of such a body shall be entitled to one vote, and a discussion of the meeting may be taken and any act or thing may be done in the name of that body by a majority of the members present at the meeting. Sub Section (3) Whenever such body is assembled for a meeting, the Chairman or other person presiding shall, in all matters in which at decision is taken by vote (by whatever name such vote may be called) have a casting as well as a deliberative vote. Sub Section (4) Subject to its rules of procedure, any such body may act or take part in any decision notwithstanding any vacancy in its membership of the absence of any member. Section 160 Sub Section (1) Subject to subsection (2) of this section, any of the bodies may with the approval of the President, by rules or otherwise regulate its own procedure or confer powers and impose duties on any officer or authority for the purpose of discharging its functions.”
On the mandate, power and functions of the Bureau, the Petitioners said, “To implement the aims and objectives, paragraph 3, of the Third Schedule to the 1999 Constitution to the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended provides the Bureau the powers to: Receive declaration by public officers made under paragraph 12 of part 1 of the 5th Schedule of the Constitution. Examine the declaration in accordance with the requirements of the Code of Conduct or any law. (c) Retain Custody of such Assets declaration and make them available for inspection by the citizen as the National Assembly may prescribe. Ensure compliance with and where appropriate enforce the provision of the Code of Conduct thereto. Receive complaints about non-compliance with or breach of the provisions of the Code of Conduct or any law in relation thereto. Investigate the complaints and where appropriate, refer such matters to the code of conduct Tribunal. Appoint, promote, dismiss and exercise disciplinary control over staff of the Code of Conduct Bureau in accordance with the provision of an act of the National Assembly enacted in that behalf; and Carryout such other functions as may be conferred upon it by the National Assembly.
“Section 160 (1) of the 1999 Constitution as amended states as follows: subject to subsection (2) of this section, any of the bodies may, with approval of the president, by rules or otherwise regulate its own procedure or coffer powers and impose duties on any officer or authority for the purpose of discharging its function. The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria recognise that each Organisation has its own peculiarities and therefore provides in Section 160 that each Agency created by Section 153 may regulate its own procedures. The last Bureau then produced a Standard Operational Procedure (SOP) with clear guidelines on how to carry out activities in the Bureau. The CCB in compliance with the provision of this Section 160 issued a Standard Operational Procedure (SOP) to regulate its own operation with the approval of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR and Gazette in the Federal Republic of Nigeria official Gazette No 13 of 30th January, 2017. The SOP was processed for Mr. President’s approval through the office of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Hon. Abubakar Malami (SAN) the number one law officer of the Federation.
“These provisions of the law are to make CCB work effectively and efficiently. However, it is so disheartening that the approach and principle with which the Chairman operates in CCB are complete opposite to the provisions to the law. For instance, the Chairman of the Code of Conduct Bureau has refused to allow the Board to implement the contents of the SOP against the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended and the resolution of the majority of Board members to implement the contents of the documents. The stand of the Chairman against the use of SOP is to execute his desire to run the Bureau as a Sole Administrator without any laid down procedure and regulations. This is a gross breach of the law. It may surprise you to know that only one Board meeting was held since the beginning of this year 2022. This is responsible for the low and poor performance of the Bureau since its inauguration.Section 3 of the CCB/CCT Act states that the functions of the Bureau shall be: Receive assets declaration by public officers in accordance with provisions of this Act. Examine the assets Declaration and ensure that they comply with the requirement of this Act and any law for the time being in force. The Chairman has never allowed the CCB to carry out the examination of the contents of the assets declaration forms completed by declarants in accordance with this Act. The reason the Chairman has for not allowing the performance of this statutory function of CCB is not clear to both members and staff of CCB.
“The SOP Section 6 (1-8) stipulate processes to follow in carrying out the verification of the assets declared in the asset declaration forms by declarants. 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 have 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 the assets declaration forms received from declarants. The Bureau cannot any achievements in this area since the inauguration of the current Board. Section 3 (d) Of the CCB/CCT Acts States “The Bureau shall receive complaints about non-compliance with breach of this Act, and where the Bureau considers it necessary to do so, refer such complaints to the Code of Conduct Tribunal established by Section 20 of this Act.” Neither the Chairman nor the department of investigation has ever informed the Bureau of any petitions received and the outcome of the investigation on such petitions. It is only the Chairman and his special assistant (SA) a non-staff of the Bureau and a staff of the Central Bank of Nigeria that handles all petitions without allowing the Bureau to have any knowledge of petition received and 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 the 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.
“Section (3) of the SOP sets out the necessary committee that the Code of Conduct Bureau shall constitute for effective execution of its functions. The Chairman has categorically told the members that committees will not be use in running of the Bureau. The Board members had continuously told the Chairman that he should bring an alternative strategy for the execution of the CCB mandates for discussion. The Chairman has never brought any alternative strategy till date. The majority of the Bureau members resolves that for the purpose of avoiding secret dealings with suspected defaulters, committee system is the most appropriate and transparent system to use. The opposition of the Chairman to the Committee system is capable of fueling compromise. Since the Bureau was constituted the Bureau has achieved nothing serious. Section 4 of SOP deals with Organisation and Staff Matters.”
