Conduct Bureau Threatens Lagos House Members

The Code of Conduct Bureau, CCB has vowed to institute a legal action against in-coming members of the National and State Assemblies if they refuse to declare their assets before getting into office.

The bureau’s, South West Commissioner, CCB, Dr. Ademola Adebo disclosed this on Wednesday when he led a team of investigators and verifiers to Lagos to verify the assets of Governor Babatunde Fashola, Deputy Governor, Sarah Sosan and other cabinet members of the current administration.

Adebo urged the in-coming lawmakers to make haste in declaring their assets in line with the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“To avoid being charged with breaching the constitution, the in-coming members of the National and State Assemblies in the South West will do well to emulate members of the executive branch by complying with this constitutional requirement before assuming office,” he stated.

He said the asset verification was meant for outgoing political office holders and those coming into office for the first time in order to curb corruption in the nation’s polity.

“While we were at Ibadan , the outgoing governor, deputy governor, secretary to the state government, some commissioners and special advisers appeared before us. Few of the commissioners who were unable to show up for the exercise must now report to our panel when it moves to Abeokuta in Ogun State ,” he added.

He lamented that a country like Nigeria lost between 25 and 30 percent of its Gross Domestic Product, GDP to public corruption annually, “while for Africa , this is said to amount to $300 billion US dollars annually.

“Due to corruption, more than $30 billion in external aid to African countries like Nigeria ends up in private bank accounts of public office holders. In Nigeria , about 50 percent of tax revenue of an average family is lost to corruption annually. The 50 percent in tax revenue that we lose to corruption is said to be greater than our total foreign debt,” he said.

Meanwhile, the CCB stormed the Lagos State Government Secretariat, Alausa in Ikeja, Lagos , South West Nigeria on Wednesday to begin its asset verification of Fashola’s cabinet members.

Deputy Governor, Sosan was thoroughly drilled by the CCB officials, while the Secretary to the State Government, Princess Aderenle Adeniran-Ogunsanya and some members of the cabinet were also questioned.

Fashola was, however, not available to have his assets verified as he was said to be busy preparing for his inauguration in on 29 May and will meet the CCB at other time for questioning.

According to Adebo, the mission of the team in the state “is to investigate the activities of Fashola, his deputy, Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Commissioners and the Special Advisers as specified by the constitution.

“We have interrogated the Deputy Governor and took her through old and new forms to see that when you come into the office, you had this and now that you are going, you have this.

“This will help to justify how you came about these new things. Of course we have all documents, her statement of account from all her banks and Certificate of Ownership from lands department.

“I cannot show you anyway because it is constitutionally protected. If there are inconsistencies and discrepancies, we have Code of Conduct Tribunal and the officer who has breached any of the code can be tried by the tribunal for prosecution. We can write to any bank to ask for your statement of account because we are acting under the constitution. we have access to all these documents, because we are acting under the constitution,” he stated.

—Kazeem Ugbodaga