Corruption Charges: Ex-CCT Chairman Umar gets N100m bail as trial begins Oct 29

By Ikechukwu Nnochiri, Abuja

Six days after he was remanded in prison custody, a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), sitting in Maitama, on Wednesday granted bail to the former chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), Mr Danladi Umar, to the tune of N100 million.

The court, in a ruling delivered by Justice Peter Kekemeke, further directed the erstwhile CCT boss, who is facing a four-count corruption charge, to produce one surety in like sum.

According to the court, the surety must be an owner of a property located within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, who must depose to an affidavit of means.

Besides, the court ordered the defendant to surrender his international passport and not travel out of the country without permission.

The case was subsequently adjourned to October 29 for trial.

Umar was, on July 9, after being arraigned before the court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), remanded to Kuje prison.

The anti-graft agency said its investigations revealed that the defendant abused his official position by conferring an undue advantage on himself while he served as head of the tribunal.

He was alleged to have collected kickbacks totalling about N15.5 million from contractors.

The prosecution told the court that the defendant, in 2021, 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.

It was further alleged that on January 25, 2024, he also used his wife’s account to collect another N6 million from a contractor that handled the digitisation of the tribunal’s records.

Furthermore, the defendant was accused of directing a contractor to pay N2.43 million for his daughter’s tuition fee 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.

However, upon his arraignment, the embattled former CCT chairman pleaded not guilty to the allegations.

At the resumed proceedings on Wednesday, his legal team, led by Mr Sunday Edward, prayed the court to release him on bail pending the conclusion of the trial.

His bail application was anchored on Section 36(5) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), as well as Sections 162 and 163 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015.

Even though the prosecution counsel, Mr Christopher Mshelia, opposed the bail request on the premise that the defendant had the capacity to influence some of the proposed witnesses, Justice Kekemeke dismissed the objection.

He held that nothing was adduced to establish that the defendant could interfere with an investigation that had already concluded, with all documentary evidence frontloaded before the court.

The court further set aside the prosecution’s claim that the defendant could commit another offence or evade trial.

It held that the charges contained bailable offences.

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, as Acting CJN.

Although 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 National Judicial Council (NJC) and the Federal Judicial Service Commission (FJSC).

In 2024, the Senate, citing alleged gross misconduct, removed Umar as chairman of the CCT.

President Tinubu has since appointed Mr Abdullahi Bello to head the tribunal.

Some of the counts in the charge against the former CCT chairman read:

“That you, Danladi Yakubu Umar, while serving as the Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal and Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal Tenders Board, on or about the 5th day of October, 2021, in Abuja, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, did confer upon yourself a corrupt and unfair advantage by causing the sum of N5,500,000.00 (five million, five hundred thousand naira only) to be paid to your wife, Zulaihatu Danladi Umar, through her Keystone Bank Account No. 6031167105, by Kurchmives International Limited, a sub-contractor under the contract awarded by the Code of Conduct Tribunal to Momanaf Global Ventures Limited for internal and external painting of the headquarters of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000, and punishable under the same section.”

“That you, Danladi Yakubu Umar, while serving as the Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal and Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal Tenders Board, on or about the 25th day of January, 2024, in Abuja, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, did confer upon yourself a corrupt and unfair advantage by causing the sum of N6,000,000.00 (six million naira only) to be paid to your wife, Zulaihatu Danladi Umar, through her Zenith Bank Account No. 2085458208, by Portal Realities Limited, a sister company of JTF Global Links Limited, a company which was awarded the contract for the digitalisation of the Code of Conduct Tribunal management records by the Code of Conduct Tribunal, and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000, and punishable under the same section.”