Mr Abdulmalik Shuaibu, the Chief Registrar, Code of Conduct Tribunal, on Thursday expressed worry over difficulties in effecting summons on assets declaration defaulters.

Shuaibu told the News Agency of Nigeria in an interview in Abuja that the difficulty was due to the delay in investigation by the Code of Conduct Bureau.

He said that service of summons on defaulters had been a major issue bedeviling the activities of the tribunal and had hampered effective prosecution of offenders.

He said, “We have had situations where infractions dating four or five years back are brought to the tribunal for trial by the bureau.

“These cases come to the tribunal late, and these defaulters are either civil servants or public officers whose tenure may be for three years.

“We have had huge challenges in effecting service because sometimes, we discover that some of these people were either dead or could not be traced again because they had retired.”
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Shuaibu, however, said that the tribunal was already partnering with some NGOs to address the challenge, adding that calls on the need for the bureau to live up to expectation had been raised.

“Some have said that the bureau must live up to expectations like other anti-corruption agencies as a prosecuting agency.

“It is its responsibility to arraign suspects before the tribunal and this is currently not being done.

“It becomes the tribunal’s responsibility to grant bail and ensure sureties that will guarantee the appearance of the accused for trial,” he added.