President Muhammadu Buhari has received an Asset Declaration Form from Chairman Code of Conduct Bureau, Isah Mohammed at the State House.
This is in compliance with the provision of the constitution, which 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.
According to the guidelines published on the CCB website, failure to declare assets as required by the Constitution 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.
A statement by Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, quoted the President as saying his strict adherence to the constitutional requirement of assets declaration before and after taking office was aimed at strengthening best practices, raising moral standards in Public Service, helping to build integrity and combating corruption.
To this extent, he has directed that all out-going officials, elected and appointed from the Vice President downwards must collect the assets declaration form, fill and return it as he has done. Speaking upon collecting his form from the Chairman of the Code of Conduct Bureau, Mohammed, President Buhari said no one is excluded from the Constitutional duty of assets declaration.
“I signed, collected and acknowledged receiving my form. From here, I will ask my bank Manager in Kaduna to show me what has gone in and out of my account. Nobody is excluded from declaring their assets. I expected everyone from the Vice President downwards to follow the system.” Earlier, Mohammed said compliance by the President in the last eight years and the support he had given to the Bureau had enabled it to achieve 99 percent compliance by elected and appointed officials.
He also acknowledged the support of the President in the achievement of the digitisation of its services and operations thereby helping the organisation to open investigation of cases with greater efficiency.
