How ex-CCT chairman allegedly diverted N15.6m kickback to wife’s accounts

Fresh details have emerged on how former Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT, Danladi Yakubu Umar, allegedly diverted over N15.5 million through bank accounts belonging to his wife while serving as head of the tribunal.

The allegations are contained in the four-count charge filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, which arraigned Umar before Justice U. P. Kekemeke of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, Maitama, Abuja.

According to the anti-graft agency, Mr Umar, who also served as Chairman of the CCT Tenders Board, allegedly used his office to confer corrupt and unfair advantages on himself by directing contractors handling projects for the tribunal to pay money into his wife’s bank accounts.

In the first count, the EFCC alleged that on October 5, 2021, Mr Umar caused Kurchmives International Limited, a subcontractor engaged in the painting of the tribunal’s headquarters under a contract awarded to Momanaf Global Ventures Limited, to pay N5.5 million into a Keystone Bank account belonging to his wife, Zulaihatu Danladi Umar.

The commission said the transaction amounted to conferring a corrupt advantage on himself, contrary to Section 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000.

The second count alleged that on January 25, 2024, Portal Realities Limited, described by the EFCC as a sister company to JTF Global Links Limited, transferred another N6 million into the same woman’s Zenith Bank account.

Investigators said JTF Global Links Limited had secured the contract for the digitalisation of the Code of Conduct Tribunal’s management records, and that the payment also constituted an unlawful benefit to the former tribunal chairman.

The remaining counts bring the total amount allegedly received through the wife’s accounts to N15,587,833.76.

Mr Umar pleaded not guilty to all four counts when they were read to him.

Following his plea, prosecution counsel Christopher Mshelia urged the court to fix a trial date and remand the defendant pending trial, while defence counsel S. Edward applied for bail.

Justice Kekemeke adjourned the matter until July 15, 2026, for the hearing of the bail application and ordered that Mr Umar be remanded in the Kuje Correctional Centre.