Ade Adesomoju, Abuja


The Chairman of the Code of Conduct Bureau, Mr . Sam Saba, and other members of the bureau, said on Wednesday that they were not sacked by any court judgment.

They, however, said in a statement that they had filed an appeal against the judgment delivered by Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court in Abuja on April 28, 2017, which was the basis for the media reports about their sacking.

Justice Binta Nyako , in her judgment in the suit marked, FHC/ABJ/CS/411/2016, held that the five -year tenure of the chairman and nine others had expired since April 2015.

She held that by virtue of section 155 (1) (c) and Paragraph 1, Part 1, Third Schedule of the 1999
Constitution ( as amended), Saba and others , all of whom were appointed in 2010, were only entitled to stay in office for five years.

The case was filed by Kingdom Human rights Foundation International, through its director and lawyer, Mr . Okere Nnamdi.

President Muhammadu Buhari, the Attorney- General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami ( SAN), and the CCB were the three respondents to the suit.

Although, Justice Nyako refused to grant prayers seeking an order compelling the President to remove and replace Saba as well as the nine other members, the judge directed the AGF to advise the President on the tenure of members of the CCB board.

But the CCB chairman and his colleagues said through a statement issued by the bureaus’ s Head of Press and Public Relation, Mr . Idris Mohammed, on Wednesday that the judgment on what was “ purely a case of interpretation of the relevant section of the 1999 Constitution”.

The statement maintained that the top officials of the CCB would continue to perform their duties until their appeals against the judgment were determined by the Court of Appeal.

The statement read in part, “ The attention of the Bureau Executive Council ( BEC ) of Code of Conduct Bureau ( CCB) has been invited to the series of misrepresentations in the print, online and electronic media, on account of the judgment delivered by Honourable Justice Binta Nyako, on Friday April 28, 2017.

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