Alleged Assault, Misconduct: Senate President, AGF Ask CCT Chair Umar To Submit Self For Probe

Senate President Ahmed Lawan as well as the Attorney General of the Federal (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, have asked the Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), Danladi Umar, to submit himself for investigation over allegations of assault and misconduct leveled against him in a petition.

Lawan and Malami noted that as the head of a government agency responsible for ensuring that the conduct and behaviour of public officers conform with the highest standard of public probity and accountability, it was incumbent on Umar to submit himself for probe.

They said this would enable relevant agencies to ascertain his culpability or otherwise in the allegations written in the petition.

Lawan and Malami expressed their views in their separate counter-affidavits filed against a suit filed by Umar.

A security guard attached to a shopping complex in Abuja, Clement Sargwak, had, last year, petitioned the Senate and accused Umar of assaulting and violently attacking him during a disagreement.

While the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions began hearing the petition, Umar ran to the Federal High Court to file the suit, among others, to stop the Senate from hearing the petition.

The CCT chairman argued that the Senate has no power to probe such cases but that such investigation could only be conducted by the police.

Defendants in the suit are: the Senate, Senate President, Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions and the AGF.

Umar wants the court to declare that the purported case of assault, which took place on March 29, 2021, did not form part of the matters the Senate is constitutionally empowered to investigate.

In a joint counter-affidavit filed by the Senate, the Senate President and the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, it was argued, among others, that Umar and the allegations against him are not beyond their investigatory jurisdiction.

On February 8, this year, parties made their final submissions and adopted the written briefs, following which Justice Inyang Ekwo scheduled judgment for April 26.