Barely 3 weeks to presidential inauguration, the Code of Conduct Bureau has said the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu; the Vice President-elect, Kashim Shettima and 28 incoming governors must declare their assets before May 29.
Other officials, including senators-elect and Reps-elect, are expected to declare their assets before June 5 when they would be sworn in.
The CCB spokesperson, Mrs Veronica Kato, told PUNCH in Abuja that asset declaration was an integral part of the swearing-in ceremony, according to the law.
She disclosed that several elected officials had started picking their assets declaration forms at the CCB state offices nationwide and that they were expected to submit the filled copies to the bureau before the inauguration day.
The outgoing officials, including presidential aides, 28 state governors and their cabinet members, National Assembly and state assembly members and local government chairmen will equally obtain the assets declaration forms from the CCB and submit the same in line with the 1999 constitution.
The constitution stipulates that all public officers shall declare their assets and liabilities on the assumption of office and at the end of their tenure of office.
The affected officials are required to provide detailed information including but not limited to the number, types, address, and value of properties so declared and the date of acquisition as well as income derivable from the properties where appropriate.
The declarations are subject to verification by the CCB officers.
Failure to declare their assets as required under the provisions of paragraph 11 of the 5th Schedule of the Federal Constitution attracts on conviction removal from office, disqualification from holding any public office and forfeiture to the state of any property acquired in abuse of office or dishonesty.
Responding to inquiries on the number of elected officials who had obtained the assets forms, Kato said, “We have earlier revealed that the assets declaration is an ongoing process. Currently, they are already obtaining their forms as they are coming in.
“However, I can’t specifically state the total number of elected officials that have collected their assets declaration forms or their names because they are getting the forms from our various offices nationwide.
“The development is going on in the 36 other offices as we are doing it at the head office here in the Federal Capital Territory. Hence, until we are done receiving their filled forms, and have collated the figures, we cannot specifically tell the total number of persons that have picked up or submitted their forms.’’
