In what amounts to national embarassment, a pointer to how things work or fail to work in a country, a Federal High Court in Abuja has declared the tenure of the Chairman of the Code of Conduct Bureau, Mr. Sam Saba, and nine other members of the bureau as expired.

Justice Binta Nyako, in her  judgment in the suit marked, FHC/ABJ/CS/411/2016, held that the five-year tenure of the chairman and nine others  had expired since April 2015.

She held that by virtue of section  155 (1) (c) and Paragraph  1, Part 1, Third Schedule of the  1999  Constitution (as amended), Saba and others, all of whom were appointed in 2010, were only entitled to stay in office for five years.

The case was filed by  Kingdom Human rights Foundation International, through its director and lawyer, Mr. Okere Nnamdi.

President Muhammadu Buhari, the Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), and the CCB were the three respondents to the suit.

Although, Justice Nyako refused to grant prayers seeking an order compelling the President to remove and replace Saba as well as the nine other members, the judge directed the AGF to advise the President on the tenure of members of the CCB board.

She specifically granted the prayer for “A declaration of the honourable court that the tenure of office  of  the Chairman and nine other members   of the Code of Conduct  Bureau  has elapsed since  April 2015;  in view  of section  155 (1) (c) and Paragraph  1, Part 1, Third Schedule of the  1999  Constitution (as amended).”

But she only partially granted the two other main reliefs in which the plaintiff sought a declaration that the AGF had failed in his responsibility by not  advising the President on the expiration of the tenure of the Chairman and members of the CCB.

In partially granting the two reliefs, the judge onlydirected the AGF to give the President the needed advice on the issue.

She also refused to grant the consequential reliefs sought by the plaintiff, seeking  orders of mandamus compelling the President to remove and appointment replacement for  Saba and others.

The judge held that such reliefs seeking an order of mandamus could only brought under an application for judicial review not under an originating summons as filed in the case.