The Code of Conduct Tribunal has approached the National Assembly for approval to transform the tribunal into a full-fledged National Anti-Corruption Court to fast-track the trial of corruption cases.
The Acting Director of Litigation of the CCT, Yahaya Laraski, disclosed this in a statement on Monday while outlining the achievements and challenges of the tribunal under its new leadership.
Laraski said the proposed legislation was being pursued as an Executive Bill through the Attorney-General of the Federation and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.
He said the proposed court would have seven judicial divisions across the country and 37 judges dedicated to corruption-related cases.
“The new Chairman is pressing the National Assembly, through the Attorney General of the Federation and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, for an Act, as an Executive Bill, to change the name to ‘National Anti-Corruption Court’ as a full-fledged Court with seven Judicial Divisions across Nigeria, to be trying all cases of Anti-Corruption,” he said.
According to Laraski, the court would have jurisdiction to handle cases filed by anti-graft agencies and other relevant institutions, as well as civil society organisations.
“Thus, there will be 37 judges and all anti-graft agencies (EFCC, ICPC, CCB, PCC, NHRC etc.) as well as Civil Society groups will be free to prosecute their cases before the Court,” Laraski added.
He said the proposed court would operate a summary trial system under which corruption cases would be concluded within six weeks of arraignment.
“It will be a court of summary trial, whereby all cases must be dispensed with within a period of six weeks from the arraignment date,” he said.
On the tribunal’s recent activities, he said the new leadership had recovered two of its three estate properties allegedly sold illegally.
The recovered properties, he said, were the official residence of the chairman and the North-Eastern States Zonal Office in Bauchi.
Laraski also said the status of the tribunal chairman had been elevated to that of the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, while members of the tribunal now had the status of Federal High Court judges.
He added that seven new departments had been created to complement the three existing ones, while outstanding staff promotions had been implemented.
“Furthermore, all pending staff promotions have been effected, while 13 fresh allowances have been introduced. The staff within one year have attended over 20 streams of Capacity Building Training Programs,” Laraski said.
However, Laraski identified inadequate case inflow and funding as major challenges facing the tribunal.
He said the tribunal could only adjudicate cases referred to it at the discretion of the Code of Conduct Bureau.
“The first is that inflow of cases to our Tribunal is determined only by the discretion of the Code of Conduct Bureau. Any case they want is the one we can adjudicate upon,” he said.
On funding, Laraski said the tribunal had struggled to access its N2bn budgetary provision.
“There is gross inadequacy of funding because we hardly get the N2 billion budget funded by the government,” he said.
He also appealed for government support to provide essential facilities, including furniture, ICT equipment, vehicles and capacity-building programmes for staff.
“Government should assist in the provision of furniture, ICT equipment and capacity building for the staff,” Laraski added.
