- Allege frustration of petitioners for selfish interest
BY VICTOR BUORO – Disquiet is gradually taking over at the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) with Six commissioners accusing the Chairman, Professor Mohammed Isah, of deliberately frustrating the anti-corruption mission of the Bureau for obvious personal reasons.
Pointedly, the Commissioners said the CCB Chairman has continued to demonstrate inappropriate conduct by openly protecting and shielding corrupt civil servants and public officers from investigations.
The aggrieved Commissioners accused the embattled Chairman of blocking investigations on petitions filed against some highly placed government officials for corrupt practices.
No longer ready to tolerate what they described as Prof Isah’s abuse of privilege and self-inflicted dysfunction of the CCB, the commissioners, led by Dr Emmanuel Attah, have approached the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges, and Public Petitions to present their case.
In a jointly signed petition submitted to the Committee, they alleged that the CCB chairman currently sits on petitions against public officers with multi-million and billion Naira assets not stated in their assets’ declaration forms.
Addressing the media on their concerns as expressed in the petition to the upper legislative Chamber, one of the commissioners, Ehiozuwa Agbonayinma, said the action is to save Bureau from “self-inflicted incapacitation.”
According to him; “The N109bn loot linked to the suspended Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, was first reported to CCB through petitions, but prevented from being acted upon by the Chairman.
The CCB Commissioner, who amplified the anti-graft position of President Muhammadu Buhari, further said; “Corruption must be killed in Nigeria before it kills us and anybody not ready to join in the fight or war against it should be shown the way out of public service, particularly those saddled with responsibilities of curbing corrupt practices in the country like CCB.”
Meanwhile, the Senate Committee probing the petition against Prof Isah could be facing torrid times handling the case with the CCB Chairman’s refusal to honour its invitation.
The Committee had invited all parties involved for a meeting last Friday, but Isah was conspicuously absent; while five out of the six aggrieved Commissioners were available for the engagement sitting.
In summoning Prof Isah to appear on Thursday to defend the allegations against him, the Senate Committee Chairman, Senator Ayo Akinyelure, said; “The seriousness of the matter lies in the fact that the petitioners are even the six federal commissioners appointed to be working with him in the fight against corruption.
“The commissioners are here, but the chairman, who is in the eye of the storm, is not here. We’ve gone through all the issues raised in the jointly signed petition by the commissioners and they’re very disturbing if eventually proven.”
However, reacting to the Commissioners’ petition, a senior CCB official hinted that the allegations were a figment of their imaginations, even as he acknowledged that all may not be well at the Bureau.
Preferring anonymity in his comments, the officer said; “There is no denying the fact that there are currently challenges within the house, however that is not a good enough reason for them to wash their dirty linens outside to the public to see.”
He expressed the hope that by the Senate intervention, things would return to normal at the Bureau, noting that the current disagreement may not be unconnected with the need for everyone to be carried along at all times.
