WHAT THEY WON’T TELL YOU ABOUT THE LEADERSHIP CRISIS ROCKING CCB, HOW FORMER AGF, MALAMI’S APPOINTED STOOGE TO CONTINUE TO PERPETUATE HIS HOLD ON BUREAU

Not many people knew how powerful the Code of Conduct Bureau was until the former Chief Justice of the Federation, Justice Walter Onnoghen was arm-twisted into resigning by the Code of Conduct Tribunal after the Bureau had done a hatchet job indicting him. Professor Mohammed Isa, the Chairman of the Code of Conduct Bureau was in charge during the period. And after the job was done, the Bureau went into coma. Unknown to many a lot of shady deals were taking place underground, while the chairman and his clique were smiling to the banks. According to investigations by our reporters, the erstwhile Chairman Professor Isa decided to side track the official process of investigating cases. Rather he choose him own team of private investigators tagged task force and used them to carry out his bidding own team of These guys investigated cases involving top government officials, and once they concluded gave him reports and based on the reports, guilty public officers were billed millions of dollars and after payment, their cases died naturally. This was happening behind the conventional way of handling cases and petitions. The normal standard is that all petitions addressed to the Chairman are minuted to the Director of investigation who after carrying out the investigation with his team forward the report to the Director of Legal Services who in turn will send his findings to the Chairman for formal endorsement and transfer to the Tribunal for prosecution. However the erstwhile Chairman circumvented the entire process for personal gains. According to our source, this was why he could not recommend any major case to the Tribunal for prosecution all through his four years tenure.


Isa had a few guys who worked with him in the Board of the Bureau. One of them was Murtala Kankia from Katsina. Kankia was Isa’s right-hand man. Late in 2022, Kankia and two others resigned from the Board of the CCB to contest for elective posts. They all lost. After the primaries, Isa and Kankia knew that the likelihood of the Chairman getting appointed by Tinubu for second term was slim. He had failed the then President-elect, who wanted to use Keyamo the current Minister of Aviation to prosecute Atiku but Isa and his team made a mess of the petition. So, based on that premise, Malami quickly arranged that Isa Kankia alone, out of the three who went to contest and lost be reappointed as board members. As Mohammed Isa left office with the expiration of his term in November 7th 2023 he surreptitiously handed over to his right-hand man, Murtala Kankia, hoping that the latter would be able to cover up his tracks instead of handing over to the most senior officer who happens to be Barrister Benedict Umeano. Meanwhile our sources gathered that when he handed over, over 2,000 files of investigated public officers were returned to the office. Why none of these, especially the top politicians as well as many heads of government agencies whose cases were believed to have been investigated discreetly were not prosecuted is left for you and I to guess.

Workers and others who are aware of what transpired between Isa and Kankia were quick to raise alarm that the latter could not have been the acting Chairman unless government want to kill the Bureau. Ordinarily, he wasn’t the next in command to the outgone Chairman. The next and most qualified senior official , should have been Benedict Umeano as the guidelines of the civil service specified that the most senior director should be the one to take over.

What has happened is that Kankia usurped the Chairman’s post after he was hurriedly smuggled back into the Board after resigning. He was brought back for the purpose. And another Board member who had earlier taken the ineptitude and corruption of the erstwhile Chairman to the appropriate committe in the National Assembly Hon.Ehiozuwa Agbonayinma a former Reps member sensing the vacuum also played a fast one to see if he could secure the Chairmanship post by rushing to the Press to announce that President Bola Tinubu has appointed him as the new helmsman of the Bureau.

Insiders have however warned that the President may lose a major platform for fighting the war against corruption and abuse of office if Kankia or Hon. Agbonayinma are allowed to lead the Bureau because they are not qualified to lead the CCB by virtue of their antecedent. Like many other appointments in the dying days of Buhari administration, the reappointment of Kankia alone back to the Board after himself and two others had stepped aside to contest elective posts was meant to cover up the atrocities committed by their former Chairman, Mohammed Isa, and by inference, Malami’s stooge as the Chairman. To allow this is to sound a death knell on the Code of Conduct Bureau.