CCT Staff Accuse Chairman Kogo of Doctoring Documents After He Denied Wife’s Appointment

The Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) is at the centre of a growing scandal. Staff at the tribunal are doubling down on their allegations against Chairman Mainasara Umar Ibrahim Kogo — and they say his attempt to deny wrongdoing has only made things worse, because documents now suggest he may have tampered with official records to cover his tracks.

The denial that raised more questions

SaharaReporters published an investigation on April 21, 2026, alleging that Kogo single-handedly recruited 66 staff members at the tribunal — including his own wife. Kogo denied it, claiming his wife was “erroneously employed” by unnamed others and that he had promptly disowned the appointment.

CCT staff are calling that story false. In a fresh statement sent to SaharaReporters, they rejected his defence point by point.

“The constitutional mandate to appoint staff members of the Tribunal resides squarely with the Chairman and members of the Tribunal. In this instance, Mr. Kogo single-handedly conducted the recruitment and appointment of the sixty-six (66) staff members engaged by the Tribunal last year,” the staff stated. “It is therefore inconceivable that ‘some people’ could have employed his wife without his knowledge or authority.”

The staff say his wife, Zainab Aliyu, was appointed on Grade Level 08, Step 2, with an appointment letter dated June 16, 2025 (ref: CCT/HQ/837/P/1) and an annual salary of ₦1,512,756. She has been receiving pay through the IPPIS system from August 2025 to date — not the brief tenure Kogo described.

Alleged document alteration after the story broke

Here’s where it gets more serious. The staff allege that hours after the SaharaReporters report published on April 21, 2026, Kogo hurriedly processed and backdated a resignation letter — supposedly dated October 14, 2025 — to stop Zainab’s salary. The problem: the Director of Finance and Accounts, Francis Ogar, had minuted his own letter seeking approval to stop her salary on October 27, 2025, which is after the date Kogo allegedly endorsed. That sequence is impossible if the endorsement was genuinely made on October 14.

Staff say this amounts to forgery. “The endorsement was allegedly made on a date when it did not exist,” they noted, and they are calling for Kogo’s removal “forthwith.”

Beyond the wife’s appointment, the staff allege a heavily skewed recruitment in which over 85 percent of those hired came from Kogo’s region. They also allege that ₦54 million out of ₦265 million appropriated for 2025 capital projects was misappropriated “under the guise of procuring non-existent vehicles and for other personal uses.”

Kogo’s other controversies

The Finance Director he appointed, Ogar, was under active EFCC probe at the time of his appointment. The commission’s own report, dated April 28, 2025, found sufficient evidence to support charges of conspiracy, abuse of office, money laundering and diversion of funds. Kogo defended the appointment by citing the presumption of innocence: “Under section 36… there is presumption of innocence. EFCC is only investigating him. By the time it reaches the level of him being arraigned… automatically I will sack him.”

Staff say this logic falls apart when the man is head of an anti-corruption tribunal.

Additional allegations include: official vehicles now in Kogo’s personal custody without authorisation; an internal “State of Emergency on Missing Files” memo that Kogo claimed not to know about; and records showing he remained on the payroll of the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) as late as October 2025, while on leave of absence to run the CCT — a potential dual-appointment violation.

“The lack of integrity in the manner in which Mainasara Kogo runs the Code of Conduct Tribunal is incompatible with the expectations of the head of an anti-corruption tribunal,” the staff concluded. “We stand by our allegations and reiterate our recommendation that he be removed forthwith to protect the integrity of the Tribunal and maintain public trust.”

Sources: SaharaReporters, Daily Nigerian