January 30, 2022

The Code of Conduct Bureau, CCB, is investigating Mr. Simbi Wabote, the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) and preliminary findings showed that he has no filing of his assets with the Board as required by law.

Checks at the Head office and Bayelsa office of CCB showed that there was no trace of any filing of Assets Declaration by the Executive Secretary of NCDMB.

This runs contrary to what Mr. Wabote told the United States District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania during deposition during which he claimed that he filed and declared all his assets before the CCB. The NCDMB boss had instituted a libel case against Mr. Jackson Ude, a journalist, in the US court.

The CCB head office had in a letter to Wabote, in which it copied its record office, dated January 18, 2022 demanded certain documents pertaining to the assets declaration of Messrs Simbi Wabote and Pwajok Matthew Lawrence, the Chief Executive of the Nigeria Airspace Management Agency (NAMA).

The memo titled “Investigation Activities: Request for Information,” said: “The Bureau is investigating a case of alleged breach of Code of Conduct for Public Officers against Mr Simbi Kesiye Wabote, the Executive Secretary of Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB).

“In view of the above, you are requested to furnish the Bureau with the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the following documents.”

It listed the documents to include: Acknowledgment slips of Wabote’s asset declaration to Code of Conduct Bureau from when he joined the public service to date; Copies of Wabote’s letter of appointment, records of service and pay slips from January to December 2021; all documents of Wabote’s buildings and landed properties both developed and undeveloped in Nigeria and abroad; details of Wabote’s personal companies, businesses and shares; bank account statements of all Wabote’s personal bank accounts from January 2021 to date.

According to the memo, the request is made “pursuant to the mandate and powers of the Bureau as enshrined in the 3^rd Schedule, Part 1, Paragraph 3(e) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended: Section 137 (a) and (b) and 138 (a) and (b) Penal Code Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990 and section 104 of the Evidence Act 2011.”

The letter demanded urgent treatment of the request.

But in a January 24, 2022 response to the letter requesting CTC of Completed Assets Declaration Forms of Wabote, the CCB record office wrote: “I am directed to refer to your internal memo dated 18/01/2022 on the above subject, and to inform you that the department do not have any record of Assets Declaration of the public officers mentioned above.”

The response to the memo confirmed our reporter’s earlier investigations at the CCB where no trace of Wabote’s Asset Declaration form was found.

The Constitution empowers CCB to “receive complaints about non-compliance with or breach of the provisions of the Code of Conduct or any law in relation thereto, investigate the complaint and where appropriate, refer such matters to the Code of Conduct Tribunal.”

Sources at the Bureau told our reporter that they have established enough premise of breach of the Code of Conduct by Wabote, but they could not immediately confirm if Wabote would be arraigned before the Code of Conduct Tribunal.