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The senate has concluded the amendment of the Code of Conduct Tribunal Act. The CCT Act amendment bill was passed on Thursday.
The passage of the bill comes on a day the Senate President lost his bid to get the court to declare that the CCT had no jurisdiction to try him in the case of false assets declaration.
Saraki had criticised the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), which filed the charges against him, for not inviting him for questioning on the charges before it filed them.
Although, actual amendments to the Act were done by the house of representatives and passed on May 31, the senate concurred with the house and passed the bill on Thursday.
The key amendments are as follows:
Nigeria: Highlights of Amendments of CCB/CCT act:
- Tenure of Chairman altered from serving until 70years to ONLY one term of five years, renewable by only one term. Entry age maintained at 50.
- Relocating the power to exercise authority over the CCB/CCT from Mr. President to the National Assembly.
- Extending powers of AGF to prosecute to private legal practitioners to enable CCB to prosecute its own cases.
The senate passed 14 amendments to the Act.
It amended section 3 of the Act thus: “Upon complaint(s) of any breach or where it appears to the bureau that there is a breach of the provision or this Act, the person concerned shall be given particulars of such non-compliance or breaches to explain before any reference to the tribunal.”
This implies that the CCB cannot immediately refer a matter to the CCT without giving a public officer a notice; one of the contentions of Saraki.
Section 1 (4) which was expunged, and replaced with “the chairman and members shall serve for a term of five years subject to renewal for one further term only”.
Section 4 (2) was amended to substitute the word “president” with “the national assembly” as the one to confer powers on the bureau and the tribunal.
The senate fixed the age of entry to the bureau at 50, and the number of members of the tribunal to sit in judgment on a case at three.
Saraki had challenged the composition of the members of the tribunal handling his trial.
Only Danladi Umar, the chairman and a member of the tribunal, have been handling his trial.