Two years ago, the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) cleared Danladi Umar, chairman of the Code
of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), of allegations of fraud levelled against him.
A group called Anti-Corruption
Network had written a petition against Umar, accusing him of demanding a bribe
of N10 million from one Rasheed Taiwo, a former customs official who was facing
false assets declaration charges before the CCT.
Umar was also accused of
receiving N1.8 million of the N10 million bribe through one of his personal
assistants, Gambo Abdullahi.
This was said to have happened in
2012.
On April 20, 2016, the commission
wrote a letter to the secretary to the government of the federation, absolving
Umar of any wrongdoing.
The letter with the title
“Investigation into N10 million bribery allegations against chairman of the
Code of Conduct Tribunal” was signed by Emmmanuel Aremo, secretary of the
commission.
“The allegations levelled against
Justice Umar were mere suspicions and consequently insufficient to successfully
prosecute the offence,” the letter read.
When the allegation was raised
during the trial of Senate President Bukola Saraki, Umar confidently said he
had been cleared.
Saraki, through Ajibola Oloyede,
his lawyer, had asked Umar to disqualify himself from the trial.
Oloyede argued that Umar could be
biased because he was under investigation by the EFCC.
He said the tribunal chairman
would be subject to the control of the EFCC since the anti-graft agency was the
body that brought Saraki before him for trial.
Umar, however, stood his ground
that he had been cleared of the allegation by both the EFCC and the AGF.
In June, Umar found Saraki not
guilty on all the 18 counts of false assets filings when he was governor of
Kwara state between 2003 and 2011.
In December, the court of appeal
in Abuja affirmed the conclusion of the tribunal on all but three counts.
Saraki’s returned to the tribunal
on Tuesday, expressing optimism of a favourable outcome.
On Friday, Festus Keyamo, a
senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), filed a two-count charge of fraud against
Umar, on behalf of the EFCC.
The suit was filed at a federal
high court in Abuja.
The charge has the same substance
as the grounds for which the agency had earlier cleared Umar.
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