The Foster-Sutton Tribunal of Inquiry was constituted by a Warrant of Appointment dated 4 August 1956, issued by the Governor of the Eastern Region of Nigeria acting on the advice of the Federal Council of Ministers. It was chaired by Sir Stafford Foster-Sutton, then Chief Justice of the Federation, and included two other commissioners. The tribunal's mandate was to inquire into allegations that Premier Nnamdi Azikiwe had used public office to advance his personal financial interest through the African Continental Bank (ACB), a commercial bank he had founded before entering politics.
The specific allegation was that after assuming office as Premier of the Eastern Region in 1954, Azikiwe caused the Eastern Region government to deposit substantial public funds—ultimately totalling approximately £2.1 million—into the African Continental Bank, in which he retained a controlling beneficial interest. This arrangement, critics argued, constituted a corrupt diversion of public resources for private gain. The tribunal sat through late 1956 and submitted its report in January 1957. Its central finding was that Azikiwe had placed himself in a position where his private interest conflicted with his public duty, and that his conduct fell below the standard expected of a holder of his office. However, the tribunal stopped short of finding dishonest intent, noting that Azikiwe had made some disclosures and that the ACB served a legitimate nationalist purpose in providing an African-owned banking alternative.
Azikiwe survived the political fallout dramatically: he called snap elections in the Eastern Region in March 1957 and won a decisive majority, interpreting the victory as a popular mandate. The British government accepted the tribunal's findings but declined to press for his removal, a decision debated in the House of Commons on 17 June 1958. The report was formally published as a colonial government document in 1957. The episode set an early precedent for the use of public tribunals as political instruments in Nigeria, and the ACB affair influenced subsequent debates about public officer ethics and financial disclosure.