Hardball
At the juncture he presently is, Code of Conduct Tribunal Chairman Danladi Umar is a perfect illustration of the saying that what goes round comes round. He is challenging the power of the Senate to investigate him over an allegation of assault, and has gone to court for determination of that challenge while in the interim shunning proceedings of the legislative probe.
The tribunal judge has been accused of assaulting a security man at Banex Plaza, Wuse 2 in Abuja named Clement Sargwak. In a video clip that went viral, he was seen hitting the man who reportedly cautioned him that his vehicle was parked in a wrong space at the plaza on 29th March. A statement on the heels of that incident by CCT spokesman Ibraheem Al-Hassan said the security man was rude and could not provide reasonable explanation why Umar should not park in the said space. Towards getting redress, Sargwak petitioned against Umar to the Senate, which mandated its Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petition to investigate. The CCT chairman appeared before the panel on 4th May, when he was given two weeks to respond to the allegations and asked to return on 18th May. But he has since withheld appearance. At the sitting of the panel penultimate Tuesday, he informed members through his attorneys that he was already in court against the probe, upon which the committee ordered him to appear before it unfailingly on 27th July or risk a warrant of arrest being issued on him.
In the suit he filed at the Federal High Court, Abuja on 13th July, however, Umar challenged the power of the Senate to conduct an investigative hearing on the purported assault case. He asked the court to interprete, among other prayers, whether constitutional powers of the legislature cover public assaults that, in his reckoning, fell under the jurisdiction of the police and the law courts. Umar also prayed the court to stop the Senate from further investigating the matter, as the case between him and Sargwak was already before the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory in Abuja. After receiving notice of the originating summons, chairman of the Senate panel, Senator Ayo Akinyelure, told journalists last weekend that it was obvious Umar would not appear before his committee on Tuesday, but the committee would yet “have a session on the matter and other petitions before it” at the scheduled sitting.
Umar’s raging battle with the Senate reflects the battle former Chief Justice Walter Onnoghen had with his tribunal early in 2019 over accusations of failure to declare personal assets as statutorily required preferred against the ex-CJ. Onnoghen had approached the Court of Appeal to stop his CCT trial pending determination of suits he filed before different high courts and the National Industrial Court. Even before the appellate court eventually turned down Onnoghen’s request, Umar had led his tribunal to decline stopping his trial and eventually convicted the chief justice. What goes round comes round.
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