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Resign or be forced out – CSO to CCT chair, Umar

A Civil Society Organisation, One Love Foundation (OLF) has asked the Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), Justice Danladi Umar to resign over his alleged assault on a private guard at Banex Plaza, Wuse in Abuja.
Founder of the group, Patriot Patrick Eholor who spoke to Vanguard on Tuesday said Umar should apologize and resign for his own honour and respect for the institution.
“For Justice Umar, I have not met him but I have heard about his good side and bad side, I think that day was probably one of his worst days, I think that public officials should respect their institutions as a Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT, he has a lot of power in his hands,” he said.
“Like I always say ‘If you cannot trust the messenger, you can’t trust his message.’ For now, he is our messenger but we can no longer trust his message. Having said that, the poor innocent boy that was assaulted and subdued in that video that went viral was already on his knee in the presence of police officers who are supposed to be law enforcement officers who descended on that boy and beat him mercilessly. That is why I took the case upon myself as the President of One Love Foundation as I have always done in other cases.
“I reached out to my lawyers and the assaulted boy’s constituency so they can read that right out on the floor of the National Assembly.
“As a law officer Umar supposed to uphold the law, but now he is a lawbreaker. I thought Umar was a gentleman, he is to apologize to Nigerians and resign his appointment and if he doesn’t do that we will force him to resign because it is a disservice to the nation and institution to continue to preside over any other matter.
“I think it is a matter of interest and the world is watching us. We should set a better example and precedence for none of these things can happen in future.”
Vanguard quoted him as calling on Umar to explain to the world why he decided to disrespect those Nigerians who trusted him with such huge responsibility and whom he represents.
“I also think his family has suffered some humiliation. He is supposed to be a gentleman and apologize to his wife, family and friends because what he did was wrong and perhaps he can go for anger management, and with that, we can rehabilitate him again. Maybe in future we can still accept him back to the society but for now, I think it is going to be a disservice to represent any institution,” he said.
He also recommended that the National Judicial Council (NJC) should conduct thorough background checks on any nominee to be appointed justice following the alleged misconduct of the CCT Chairman.
“I think there are a lot of background checks that they have been doing. For example, I have dual citizenship because I am a Canadian too. I have lived in Canada for 36 years, and before a man of that status can get that position, first of all, a psychologist has to come in, his mental competence has to play, his temper has to be checked, his relationship with women has to be checked, his relationship with the public has to be checked, his criminal background has to be checked. There are a lot of things to be checked we don’t do in Nigeria.
“Maybe if we have checked these things his being a chairman of CCT would have denied him. I think in the future Nigeria should check people’s background before giving them high responsibility in any of these institutions.
“I don’t know whether he will like to subject himself to these things as but maybe if he excuses himself and maybe he is clean and apologizes to Nigerians we can still consider him but until he does one of those things he shouldn’t dare go to the court to preside over any matter that concerns the affairs of this country,” he noted.