Just in: Court remands ex-CCT chairman in Kuje prison

Justice Peter Kekemeke of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) sitting in Maitama has ordered the remand of the former Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), Danladi Umar, at the Kuje Correctional Centre.

Umar faces a four-count corruption charge brought by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

He is accused of conferring undue advantage on himself and abusing his official position while leading the tribunal.

It was alleged that in 2021 he used his wife’s bank account to collect the sum of N5.5 million from a contractor engaged to paint the headquarters of the CCT in Abuja.

The federal government further alleged that on January 25, 2024, the defendant also used his wife’s account to collect N6 million from a contractor who handled the digitisation of the CCT’s records.

Also, the defendant was accused of directing another contractor to pay N2.43 million for the tuition fee of his daughter at Baze University, Abuja.

He was said to have committed offences punishable under section 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000.

Umar pleaded not guilty to all allegations levied against him.

The prosecuting counsel, Christopher Mshelia, applied for Umar’s remand and requested a date for the trial to commence.

Although Umar’s legal team submitted an application seeking his release on bail, the anti-graft agency opposed it on the grounds that they had just been served and required time to respond.

In view of this development, Justice Kekemeke adjourned the case until July 15 to hear the defendant’s application for bail.

It will be recalled that the defendant, while in office as CCT Chairman, on January 23, 2019, issued a controversial ex parte order that led to the removal of a serving Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen.

Following the ex parte order, the late President Muhammadu Buhari, on January 25, swore in the next most senior jurist of the Supreme Court, Justice Tanko Muhammad, to take over the leadership of the judiciary as Acting CJN.

Even though Onnoghen later voluntarily resigned his position as CJN on April 4, Umar went ahead and convicted him on April 18, 2019, on the federal government’s allegation that he had failed to properly declare his assets as required by law.

He gave the federal government the go-ahead to confiscate all monies in five accounts belonging to the former CJN, and also removed him as Chairman of both the NJC and the Federal Judiciary Service Commission (FJSC).