Buhari and Osinbajo dragged to court over the failure to declare their assets publicly

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari and vice president Yemi Osinbajo have been dragged before a Federal High Court in Lagos for failing to keep to their promise during the election campaign on the public declaration of their assets.

 

Yesterday, Lagos lawyer and human rights activist, Kabir Akingbolu, who initiated the suit, is contending that by declaring their assets secretly, President Buhari and Professor Osinbajo have violated Section 172 and Section 11 (1) and (2) of the Code of Conduct for public officers under the fifth schedule of the 1999 Constitution. Apart from President Buhari and Professor Osinbajo, other defendants in the suit are the attorney-general of the federation and the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB).

 

President Buhari and Professor Osinbajo had declared their assets to the CCB secretly, which drew public condemnation, with many commentators insisting that it was a sharp departure from the anti-corruption posture of the president and his deputy. Mr Akingbolu, who formulated three questions for the court’s determination, is seeking an order declaring that it was mandatory for the CCB to publicly publish the assets of President Buhari and Professor Osinbajo.

 

He is also seeking a declaration that the secret declaration of assets by President Buhari and Professor Osinbajo was unconstitutional and an order mandating them to publicly declare their assets in line with the Code of Conduct for public officers under the fifth schedule to the constitution. In an affidavit in support of the suit, Mr Akingbolu recalled that President Buhari and Professor Osinbajo made it abundantly clear while canvassing for votes from Nigerians that they would publicly declare their assets in order to prove that they would run a transparent government.

 

He averred that under the code of conduct, the president and the vice-president were duty bound as public officers to declare their assets publicly, and that the duo had breached the said requirement by not publicly declaring their assets as dictated and mandated by the constitution. According to the lawyer, most galling is the fact that the CCB has been shielding President Buhari and Professor Osinbajo by not publicising their purported declaration of assets in line with the law.

 

Mr Akingbolu argued further that the conspiracy by President Buhari, Professor Osinbajo and the CCB to deprive Nigerians of knowing the assets purportedly declared by them was clearly against the constitution.  His suit is yet to be assigned to a judge and no date has been fixed for hearing.