Publisher of THE CONCLAVE (online newspaper), Mr Sufuyan Ojeifo, has pointed the finger at a federal commissioner with the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), Mr Ehiozuwa Johnson Agbonayinma, for the threat to his life over a report on change of leadership guard at the Bureau.
Mr Ojeifo, in a petition he lodged at the Area Court 1, Kubwa, Abuja through the Registrar, dated December 29, 2023, sought the directive of the court to have the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) FCT Police Command, Garki, Abuja, investigate the direct criminal complaint of threat to life against Agbonayinma.
In a referral for investigation endorsed by the court registrar marked DC/CR/564/2023 and dated December 29, 2023, between Sufuyan Isa Ojeifo (complainant) and Hon Ehiozuwa Johnson and Ords (defendants), addressed to the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Criminal Investigation Department, FCT Police Command, Garki, Abuja, the court directed the police to carry out a proper investigation pursuant to Section 89(50 of the ACJA 2015.
The Police Force CID acknowledged receipt of the court referral on January 12, 2024.
The referral reads: “The above subject matter refers.
“You are to report your findings within two weeks from today either on FIR (First Information report) or otherwise.
“Find a copy of the complaint for your total action.
“Thanks for your usual cooperation.”
Reproduced hereunder, in extenso, is the complaint (petition) by publisher of THE CONCLAVE:
DIRECT CRIMINAL COMPLAINT OF THREAT TO LIFE AGAINST HON EHOZUWA JOHNSON AGBONAYINMA AND HIS COHORT
I write to formally advert the attention of your Worship to a real and existential threat to my life, which had the imprimatur of a Federal Commissioner with the Code of Conduct of Bureau, Hon. Ehiozuwa Johnson Agbonayinma.
● The specifics of the threat
At exactly 7.12 am on Thursday, December 7, 2023, I received a phone call from a strange number: 08038877756-a male, whose voice was somewhat guttural, who angrily said he was going to yank my head off my shoulders for writing a negative story against a Benin man.
The caller, whose identity I did not know, and still do not know, threatened that he would find me out and soak me in my own blood.
He ranted endlessly, shouting on top of his voice and reeling out all manner of claims against me. He called me a blackmailer and purveyor of tainted news.
Immediately he hung up, I tried to recall the recent stories I had published in my online newspaper-THE CONCLAVE- and I remembered that the only person who called me about two weeks earlier to complain about a report we published in THE CONCLAVE on the race for the leadership of the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) was Hon Ehiozuwa Johnson Agbonayinma.
Hon Ehiozuwa Johnson Agbonayinma had called to complain about a story, entitled “I am the senior”-crisis brews in CCB as Kankia rejects purported appointment of acting chair”, which was culled by THE CONCLAVE from TheCable online newspaper and the source of report was appropriately credited.
Hon Agbonayinma ignored the fact that the story was culled from TheCable and took time to harass and throw tantrums at me.
I made him realise that THE CONCLAVE only culled the story from TheCable because THE CONCLAVE’s Board of Editors agreed that the story was instructive and quite significant to the process of enlightenment of Nigerians on public policy and the law that established the CCB.
I told him that THE CONCLAVE was still conducting its investigation into the issue and would run a comprehensive report once it was ready.
Hon. Agbonayinma insisted in our telephone conversation that he was the most senior, that Murtala Kankia (the acting chairman to whom the former Chairman, Professor Mohammed Isah handed over) resigned at a point to go contest election, and having lost his bid for the APC ticket in the Katsina State, he was reappointed to the CCB.
When I concluded investigations into the leadership succession palaver, the comprehensive report was published in THE CONCLAVE on December 1, 2023.
Apparently irked by the report, Hon. Agbonayinma, I suspected, sent his proxy to issue the December 7, 2023 threat to my life via the telephone number stated supra.
I was initially not interested in making a formal report until some friends insisted that I should not take the threat lightly, that it was better to err on the side of caution or circumspection by doing the needful: a formal petition/ report to the Police.
I hereby submit for your intervention and interrogation this petition, hoping that the authorities would avert whatever plot might be in the offing against me at the behest of Hon. Ehiozuwa Johnson Agbonayinma (who could be reached via 08059297797 for invitation and questioning).
I look forward to your expeditious consideration of this petition.
Please accept the assurances of my highest consideration.
Sufuyan Isa Ojeifo
Publisher/Editor-in-Chief
THE CONCLAVE (online newspaper)
08034727013
Recall that Agbonayinma had also sent a petition against THE CONCLAVE publisher to the Inspector General of Police alleging “injurious falsehood and defamation of character.’
The Inspector General of Police Monitoring Unit had on the basis of his petition sent an invitation signed by ACP Ibrahim M. Musa (for head, IGP Monitoring Unit) dated December 28, 2023 to Ojeifo to interview CSP Usman Garba on Tuesday, 16the January, 2024 at 10 am to shed more light on the allegation.
Consequent upon honouring the Police invitation and during the interview, Ojeifo was furnished with a copy of the petition by Agbonayinma (authored by his counsel) wherein he alleged that by publishing a story entitled: “Presidency directs Kankia to act as chair of Code of Conduct Bureau,” contents of a classified document were divulged.
He also alleged that the report defamed his character. Ojeifo had volunteered his statement in response, rebutting all the claims contained in Agbonayinma’s petition.
A tripartite meeting involving both parties and a representative of the Inspector General of Police has been fixed for Monday, January 29, 2024 for interrogation of parties.
Reproduced hereunder is the story that formed the gravamen of Agbonayima’s complaints and the pedestal of his action.
*Presidency directs Kankia to act as chair of Code of Conduct Bureau**
The Presidency has directed the acting chairman of the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), Barrister Murtala Kankia, to continue in office until a decision is taken on appointment into the office on substantive basis.
The directive by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume, and the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Mr Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), has upended the move by another member of the Bureau, Hon Ehiozuwa Johnson Agbonayinma, to supplant Kankia.
The immediate past chairman of the CCB, Professor Mohammed Isah had handed over to Kankia, who is the most senior member of the Bureau, in line with the provisions of the Establishment Act.
But THE CONCLAVE reports that Hon Agbonayinma had embarked on a subterranean move to displace Kankia so he could assume the position of acting chairman.
Investigations have disclosed that Kankia was appointed into the CCB in 2018 when Agbonayinma was still a member of the House of Representatives. Agbonayinma was in the House from 2015 to 2019 during which he represented Egor/Ikpoba-Okha federal constituency of Edo State.
Kankia was appointed in 2018 and served until 2022 when he resigned to participate in the primaries of the APC in Katsina State where he lost and was reappointed in February 2023 by then President Muhammadu Buhari, screened and confirmed by the Senate to continue in office.
The immediate past CCB Chair, Professor Isah had, as learnt, handed over to Kankia because he was deemed to be the most senior and most qualified to hold the office in line with the professional qualification specified in the Act for the position of Chairman of the Bureau.
The Act prescribes that “the chairman shall be a person who has held or is qualified to hold office as a judge of a superior court of record in Nigeria and shall receive such remuneration as may be prescribed by law.”
THE CONCLAVE reports that whereas Kankia is a lawyer of well over a decade experience, Agbonayinma is not a lawyer and could therefore not have stepped into the position for non-qualification.
But Agbonayinma had deployed subterfuge to snatch the acting chairmanship of the Bureau from Kankia: the federal commissioner from Edo State had, as learnt, made his first gambit of trying to ensure that a letter was written by the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation specifically stating that he was the most senior member of the bureau.
A permanent secretary in the office of the SGF, according to sources close to the development, frustrated his move by ensuring that his name, which was inserted by a director in bracket in front of the citation in the letter that the most senior member of the bureau should be handed over to, was expunged.
His plan, as learnt, was to arm himself with the letter (if he had succeeded in having his name specified in it) and confront Kankia with it.
It was learnt that Agbonyinma still confronted Kankia to intimate him with the fact that he had a letter that he should take over as the most senior member, but Kankia insisted he would like to see the letter, but Agbonayinma refused to avail Kankia of it.
If the office of the SGF had inserted the name of Agbonayinma, he would have effectively eased out Kankia.
Having failed in his first bid to upstage Kankia, Agbonayinma, as learnt, headed to the office of the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Mr Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, to make a case in aid of his appointment as acting chairman,
THE CONCLAVE gathered that Mr Fagbemi, whose office supervises the CCB, summoned Kankia to join Agbonayinma in his office where the issues were thrashed out.
Mr Fagbemi, as learnt, directed both Kankia and Agbonayinma to submit their respective position papers to the SGF to show how each of them qualified as the most senior member of the CCB.
He directed them to submit their position papers to the SGF, who has the final say on the matter.
However, Kankia was directed to continue to act in the office of the chairman pending the resolution of the matter.
Recall that Kankia had debunked, about a week ago, the claim that Agbonayinma, a former member of the house of representatives, had been appointed to replace him at the bureau.
On Thursday, last week, a letter purportedly signed by the SGF, announced the appointment of Agbonayinma by President Bola Tinubu as the chairman of CCB.
But in an internal memo released by Kankia, the acting chairman of CCB had described the letter as “fake, misleading and does not emanate from the office of the secretary to the government of the federation.”
Kankia had said he was the most senior ranking member of the bureau, adding that he remained the acting chairman of the agency until further directives from the presidency.
“My attention has been drawn to a circular which emanated from Hon. Ehiozuwa Johnson Agbonayinma, a federal commissioner claiming to have been appointed by the president and C in C of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu as Acting Chairman, CCB,” the memo reads.
“The truth of the matter is, Barrister Murtala Aliyu Kankia, having served for an initial Five (5) years term and was re-appointed as a member of the Bureau in 2018 and 2023 respectively, remains the most senior ranking member of the Bureau, hence he is now acting as Chairman pending further directives of the President to avoid leadership vacuum.“Mr. Ehiozuwa Johnson Agbonayinma, serving for the initial 5 years appointed in 2021, cannot in any ramification claim seniority over the current Ag. Chairman (Murtaala Kankia).
“Determination of seniority between Murtala A. Kankia, Barr. Benedict Umeano and Hon. Ehiozuwa Johnson Agbonayinma will be made by the SGF office, and whatever decision is taken in the best interest of the system and the country will be communicated formally to the Bureau by me and no other.
“Note further that the SGF letter did not specifically invite Murtala Kankia to hand over to Hon. Ehiozuwa Johnson as falsely speculated.”
THE CONCLAVE reports that it was after Agbonayinma read this report that he decided to send one of his boys to threaten the Publisher of THE CONCLAVE in addition to the petition to the Inspector General of Police.
Leave a Reply