Conduct Tribunal can prosecute president, others - Momoh

Lanre Adewole, Abuja - 28.08.2008

A former Information Minister, Chief Tony Momoh, on Wednesday said Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution did not bar the Code of Conduct Tribunal from prosecuting president, his deputy governors and their deputies over corruption allegations while in office.

Addressing the 2008 Nigerian Bar Association’s (NBA) annual conference at the Lawyers in the Media Forum in Abuja, Momoh said the Code of Conduct Tribunal was not a court, adding that courts were barred from issuing processes against executives conferred with immunity.

Momoh’s opinion contradicted decisions of a Federal High Court, Abuja, and the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal.

Both courts had held that the tribunal could not try any of the 74 executives clothed with immunity by the constitution.

The Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal had, last year, held that the tribunal could not try former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who was charged with alleged corrupt acts while in office as vice president.

A federal high court had earlier held a similar view in the case of alleged corruption filed against the former governor of Plateau State, Chief Joshua Dariye, before the Code of Conduct Tribunal.

Momoh said both the high court and the court of appeal were in error because they took the tribunal to be a court.

“We believe the impression given that the Code of Conduct Tribunal is a court is wrong. If it were, it would have been listed under Item 5 of Part 2 which lists the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justices of the Supreme Court, President and Justices of the Court of Appeal, all other judicial officers and all staff of courts of law as a category of public officers.

“Item 12 lists as public officers the chairman, members of staff of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Code of Conduct Tribunal.

“If the tribunal were a court, it would be listed under Chapter VII of the constitution which deals with the judicature. That it uses the processes of a court does not make a body a court. Appeals from the Code of Conduct Tribunal go to the Court of Appeal and then the Supreme Court,” Momoh said.

Momoh is appealing to the Supreme Court to set the record straight by holding that the Code of Conduct Tribunal is not a court and, therefore, not restricted to try corrupt president, vice president, governors and their deputies for corruption while they are in office.