ABUJA — The Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) says 1,037 cases inherited from previous administrations remained unresolved for between five and 10 years, blaming inadequate funding, limited operational facilities and an inconsistent flow of cases from the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB).
The tribunal, however, said its current leadership has cleared the backlog of cases referred by the bureau, even as it disclosed that only six cases were filed by the CCB between December 2025 and May 2026.
Acting Director of Litigation at the CCT, Yahaya Laraski, disclosed this while responding to questions on the tribunal’s operations over the past six months.
Laraski said the tribunal’s caseload was largely dependent on the CCB because the CCT could only adjudicate matters formally referred to it.
He also raised concerns over the tribunal’s funding, saying the institution had struggled to receive its approved budgetary allocations.
“There is gross inadequacy of funding because we hardly get the N2 billion budget funded by the government,” Laraski said.
He added that the tribunal lacked basic facilities, including accommodation and official vehicles for senior officials.
“We don’t have even housing and motor vehicle for our chairman, talk less of many directors that do not have official vehicles,” he said.
Laraski called for improved government funding for furniture, information and communications technology equipment and staff capacity building.
Despite the constraints, he said reforms introduced by the new CCT Chairman, Mainasara Kogo, had enabled the tribunal to clear its backlog of cases referred by the CCB.
He said the tribunal had also adopted a fast-track approach under which some cases were being heard within a week of filing, including applications seeking orders to freeze accounts and temporarily forfeit assets belonging to individuals and companies.
“As of July 10, 2026, when the tribunal embarked on annual vacation, there is no unattended case pending from the bureau in the record of the tribunal,” Laraski said.
He explained that the 1,037 cases were inherited from previous leaderships and had remained unresolved for five to 10 years “for lack of adjudication”.
The tribunal is also pursuing a broader institutional overhaul, with Laraski disclosing that its chairman was working with the National Assembly, the Attorney-General of the Federation and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation on an Executive Bill to transform the CCT into a National Anti-Corruption Court.
Under the proposed structure, the tribunal would become a full-fledged court with seven judicial divisions across the country to handle corruption-related cases.
“The new leadership has repositioned the status of the Chairman to that of the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court and that of members to judges of the Federal High Court,” Laraski said.
He further disclosed that seven new departments had been created in addition to the tribunal’s existing three, while pending staff promotions had been effected and 13 new allowances introduced.
The developments come as the CCT seeks to expand its capacity to handle cases arising from alleged breaches of Nigeria’s code of conduct framework while reducing delays that have historically affected the tribunal’s caseload.
