Transition: President Buhari, VP Osinbajo, Others To Commence Asset Declaration

President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice President Yemi, and the 44 ministers in the Federal Executive Council are set to start declaring their assets ahead of the transition scheduled to hold on May 29.

The asset declaration was confirmed by the Special Adviser to the CCB Chairman on General Duties, Dr Mustapha Musa.

He added that necessary arrangements have been made for the issuance of the assets forms to the outgoing officials and their successors.

Additionally, the outgoing presidential aides, 28 state governors and their cabinet members, National Assembly and state assembly members and local government chairmen will also obtain the assets declaration forms from the Code of Conduct Bureau and submit them to the CCB in line with the 1999 constitution. 

The President-elect, Bola Tinubu, the Vice President-elect, Kashim Shettima, and the 28 incoming governors and their cabinet members as well as the state assembly members have been given three months to submit their assets forms to the CCB.

The above individuals are required to declare all properties and assets acquired within or outside the country with the value of the said assets in the currency of the country where the property is situated.

Musa disclosed that the officials are to obtain the forms from the CCB office and declare all their assets, including money, landed property, vehicles, shares, bonds and others and the sources of the assets.

“They (officials) are expected to declare all their assets at the point of exit, at the point of leaving office.

“That’s what the law says. They will submit the forms when leaving the office, you cannot submit assets declaration forms while in office.

“So, it is at the point of entrance and point of exit. That is what the constitution says, that is what the Code of Conduct Bureau Act says under section 15.

“The same thing applies to those who are about to come into government but they have three months to declare.

“The officials are expected to get the forms from the bureau and in fact, they can even go online.

“We cannot stop issuing the forms because they are online but very soon, we will stop the hard copy and ask them to make their declaration online", he stated.

On action against defaulters, Musa revealed that there are hundreds of cases at the tribunal.

 “We are prosecuting and we are securing convictions. We prosecute in thousands. We have hundreds of cases before the tribunal. We prosecute daily. The Code of Conduct Bureau is the only body empowered by the constitution to prosecute cases of breaches of the code of conduct for public officers.

“At the tribunal, it is only the judiciary body that has the power to prosecute public officers.

“So, the tribunal is always our hope. I cannot give you the figure but there are many including all erring public officials."