BREAKING NEWS, Politics
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The alleged corruption allegation against Danladi Umar, chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, is not about to go away soon as the matter is now receiving the attention of the National Assembly
THERE seems to be respite for Danladi Umar, embattled chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT. In the past few days the media attention has been on Umar on allegations of his past corrupt deals. On Tuesday, November 10, the House of Representatives received two different petitions, alleging impropriety and abuse of office against the CCT boss.
Submitting the document, Kwewum alleged that Mohammed Adoke, former minister of Justice and attorney-general of the federation, had recommended that two persons were to be arrested and investigated for alleged corruption.
He stated that in compliance with Adoke’s recommendation, one Ali Abdullahi was arrested and prosecuted but the other person, the current chairman of the CCT, was not.
“The petitioner is now seeking the house to wade into the matter with a view to seeing that the second person, Danladi is immediately arrested.
“He should be made to face the law in compliance with the recommendations of the former attorney-general of the federation and minister of justice,’’ he said.
Nevertheless, while one petition is requesting the House to investigate alleged acts of impropriety committed by Umar, another is requesting the House to investigate the office of the attorney general of the federation for its failure to act on investigations allegedly conducted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, which allegedly indicted Umar of corruption.
The two petitions were presented on the floor of the House by Rima Kwewum, chairman of the House Committee on Army, on behalf of Anti-Corruption Network, the petitioners.
In the first petition signed by Ajufo I. Ajufo, executive secretary of the group, Umar was alleged to have vitiated the due process mechanism in the discharge of his duties especially in the award of contracts.
He was accused of, among others, to have misused public funds by allowing to be paid to him, the sum of N1 million vide payment voucher CCT/ABJ/DC/206/11 on July 14, 2011 to organise his own wedding.
Similarly he was alleged to have approved the payment of N4.2 million to Chinox Global Investment Limited for the “replacement of external security light bulbs.”
“Not only is this monstrous amount a gross inflation of what may have been needed to replace light bulbs in the premises, it is an entirely fictitious contract. No replacement of external security lights were carried out,” the Anti-Corruption Network alleged.
The second petition to the House alleged negligence on the part of the office of the attorney general for failing to prosecute Umar as recommended by the EFCC.
The group alleged that Ibrahim Lamorde, the erstwhile EFCC chairman, had on June 24, 2014, submitted the report of an investigation to the office of the AG.
“That report was about evidence against Umar. The AG then instructed the EFCC chairman by minuting on the same letter to “proceed to prosecute the suspects.”
Instead, only the personal assistant of Umar was charged to court, prompting the petitioners to charge: “This is in clear breach of the order of the AG. Since then, the office of the attorney general has been silent on this failure to prosecute as directed.
“We believe this neglect is deliberate. This has led us to believe there is a cover-up in this matter. When the Nigerian public becomes aware of this fact, they would be very much interested to know the reason for this cover up,” the group said.
Yakubu Dogara, speaker of the House, directed that the petition be laid before the House and ruled that the House committee on public petition should take charge of the matter ‘’for further legislative action.’’
Ironically, Umar is the judge hearing the allegations of false declaration of assets case levelled against Bukola Saraki, president of the Senate. This has prompted some political observers to allege that the accusation against Umar is politically motivated. But petitioners are insisting that they have an iron-cast evidence against the CCT chairman.
— Nov 11, 2015 @ 15:00 GMT
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