Jonathan, Sambo, others to declare assets within 30 days

 

Also on the list of public officials who must declare their assets before leaving office are the country’s 109 senators and 360 members of the House of Representatives.With five days to the end of President Goodluck Jonathan’s tenure, the President, Vice-President Namadi Sambo, 29 governors and 42 ministers have been asked by the Code of Conduct Bureau to declare their assets,SUNDAY PUNCH authoritatively reports.

The bureau, last week, issued the Completed Assets Declaration Forms to them with a 30-day deadline to return the completed forms. The deadline countdown starts from the day of the receipt of the forms.

Apart from the outgoing government officials, the forms have also been made available to incoming public officers, particularly members of the states and National Assembly.

The officers that will be assuming office in the incoming dispensation also have to return the completed forms within 30 days of receiving it.

The CCB, in an advertorial by its Acting Secretary, Kolade Omoyola, in some newspapers last Tuesday, had reminded “political office holders to declare their assets on assumption and vacation of office in accordance with Paragraph II of the 5th Schedule of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended.”

According to the law quoted by the CCB, failure of a public officer to declare his or her assets in line with law “shall attract on conviction any or all of the following: (a) Removal from office (b) Disqualification from holding any public office, (c) Forfeiture to the state any property acquired in abuse of office or dishonesty.”

Jonathan had, last year, rejected calls on public office holders to declare their assets openly, before and after office. According to the President, public declaration of assets is “playing to the gallery.”
Read on:Sunday Punch