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Court sends ex-CCT chairman Danlandi Umar to Kuje prison over corruption charges
Justice Peter Kekemeke gave the remand order on Thursday after the Federal Government arraigned the erstwhile CCT boss on a four-count corruption charge.
Umar was arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on a four-count charge of conferring undue advantage on himself while serving as the chairman of the CCT.
According to the the EFCC, investigations revealed that the defendant abused his official position by conferring an undue advantage on himself while he served as head of the tribunal.
It was alleged that in 2021 he 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.
The EFCC further alleged that on January 25, 2024, the defendant also used his wife’s account to collect N6 million from a contractor who handled the digitisation of the CCT’s records.
Also, the defendant was accused of directing another contractor to pay N2.43 million for the tuition fee of his daughter 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.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges. Prosecuting counsel Christopher Mshelia had prayed the court for a day for trial and that the defendant be remanded at the correctional centre.
Counsel to Umar informed the court of the bail application filed on behalf of his client and urged the court to take the application
The prosecution insisted that they had just been served with the bail application and would need time to respond
Justice Kekemeke adjourned the matter until 15th July for the hearing of the bail application.
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, to take over the leadership of the judiciary as Acting CJN.
Even though 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 NJC and the Federal Judiciary Service Commission (FJSC).
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