TVC N. Chairman of the Code of Conduct Bureau, CCB, Mr. Sam Saba, and nine board members of the bureau, on Wednesday, insisted that they were not sacked by any court judgment. However, Saba and the other executives of the CCB said they have gone before the Court of Appeal to challenge the judgment delivered by Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court in Abuja on April 28, which was the basis for media reports about their purported sack. In a statement signed by Head of Press and Public Relation at the CCB, Mr. Idris Mohammed, Saba and his colleagues maintained that the high court judgment was purely a case of interpretation of the relevant section of the 1999 Constitution.
The statement stressed that top officials of the CCB would continue to perform their duties until their appeals against the judgment is determined by the appellate court. Justice Nyako had in her verdict, held that tenure of office of the Chairman and nine other members of the CCB elapsed since 2015. The court held that the CCB officials ought to have vacated the office in April 2015 in view of section 155 (1) (c) and Paragraph 1, Part 1, Third Schedule of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
The verdict followed a public interest suit that was lodged by a non governmental organisation, Kingdom Human Rights Foundation International. Though the court refrained from ordering Mr. Saba and other nine members of the CCB to vacate their respective offices with immediate effect, it however directed the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, SAN, to bring the judgment to the attention of President Muhammadu Buhari.
The plaintiff had in the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/411/2016, prayed the court to among other things, determine “Whether or not the tenure of office of the Chairman and nine other members of the Code of Conduct Bureau has elapsed since April 2015, in view of section 155 (1) (c) and Paragraph 1, Part 1, Third Schedule of the 1999 Constitution (as amended)”.
