CCB charged 889 persons at CCT, secured convictions of 45 in 10 years

The Code of Conduct Bureau has secured the conviction of only 45 alleged defaulters charged before the Code of Conduct Tribunal in the last 10 years, The PUNCH’s findings have shown.

A former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godsday Orubebe, was among the 45 persons, but his conviction was subsequently overturned by the Court of Appeal in Abuja.

The number of those whose convictions had been overturned by the higher court could not be ascertained as of the time of filing this report on Wednesday.

The 45 cases of conviction represent only about five per cent of at least 889 defendants whom the CCB had charged with various infractions relating to assets declaration and other provisions of the Code of Conduct for Public Officers since the year 2009.

Analysis of a record obtained by The PUNCH from the tribunal following a request based on the Freedom of Information Act also revealed that the CCB as of April this year had pending cases against 665 persons at the tribunal.

The CCB is the only constitutionally established anti-corruption agency with the exclusive power to enforce the Code of Conduct for Public Officers as stipulated in Part I of the Fifth Schedule to the Nigerian Constitution.

It also has the exclusive power to refer cases of breaches of the code to the CCT for prosecution.

But the bureau’s record of conviction pales into insignificance when compared with the record of sister anti-corruption agencies like the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission, which were created by mere Acts of the National Assembly.

The CCB recorded its biggest conviction in the period under review against the immediate-past Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen, in terms of his public status and, severity of the punishment meted out to him in the CCT’s judgment delivered on April 18, 2019.

In its judgment, the Danladi Umar-led three-man bench of the tribunal convicted Onnoghen on charges of false and non-declaration of assets and, as punishment, ordered the defendant’s removal from office, prohibited him from holding public office for a period of 10 years and also ordered the final forfeiture of the over N40m proceeds in the bank accounts he was said to have failed to declare.

The rest of the 44 defendants who are mostly low-cadre state and federal civil servants and political appointees were only convicted and punished with a slap-on-the-wrist fines.

The few other high profile persons, comprising a former Governor of Lagos State and National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu; a former Governor of Kano State, Ibrahim Shekarau, the immediate-past Senate President, Bukola Saraki, and a serving Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Sylvester Ngwuta, were charged before the CCT between 2016 and 2018, but had their cases struck out by the tribunal, some even before arraignment.

Before Onnoghen’s conviction, the stiffest punishment secured against a defaulter by the CCB in the last 10 years was a combination of N50,000 fine with a ban from holding public office for a period of two years.

Asked why the CCB had only been able to secure 45 convictions in the last 10 years, the Chief Press Officer of the bureau, Mrs Charity Utok, stated in a text message, “The CCT is in the position to know that and not CCB.”

The three-man tribunal led by Danladi Umar receives cases from all the 36 states of the federation and Abuja.

The tribunal members travel to various states to hear cases filed in those states, but have not been to a state like Yobe in the last seven to eight years, despite that over 100 persons are awaiting trial in respect of the cases filed in the tribunal since the last 10 years.

The CCT’s record obtained by The PUNCH also showed that out of the 889 persons charged in the last 10 years, 665 persons’ cases are pending while those of 224 others had ended as of April this year.

Badly drafted charges to be struck out

Of the pending 665 persons’ cases, the charges involving 435 of them had been filed in 2009 and 2010.

Responding to our correspondent’s questions on why there was a huge number of pending cases for a period as long as nine to 10 years, the Chief Registrar of CCT, Mr Abdulmalik Shuaibu, said the charges were badly drafted as many of the defendants were joined together in groups when the alleged offences were not jointly committed.

He also said some of the charges were unsupported by the constitution.

Shuaibu said the CCB had planned to have such cases struck out but the tribunal had been incapacitated to frequently visit the various states due to lack of funding.

He said, “The cases are part-heard. Most of them were filed in 2009 and 2010 during the time of the former chairman, who died suddenly.

“At a time, the current chairman was the only member of the tribunal, so the tribunal could not form a quorum to conduct proceedings.

“Apart from these, there is also the issue of badly drafted charges. If you look at the charges, you will find out that some of the defendants were joined together in groups. This is wrong, because the offences were not jointly committed. Most of the cases were minor offences of about two or three days of delay in submitting assets declaration forms.

“Also, they were even filed when the Code of Conduct Bureau was operating under the impression that public officers must make their declaration within one month as provided by the Act, when the constitution stipulates three months. So as things stand, the charges are invalid.

“What the bureau has been doing is to have those cases struck out bit by bit. But there is also the problem of logistics in terms of funding involved in mobilising the tribunal to those states for hearing. The tribunal does not have the capacity to readily do that.”