The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, CACOL, has lauded the Code of Conduct Bureau, CCB for inviting some top government officials and serving Ministers of the Federation to report for the asset verification exercise, but Coalition believes the process must be transparent for it to be credible.
The Code of Conduct Bureau recently embarked on its primary duty of verification of assets belonging to top public officials, a process that would lead to the issuing of a certificate of Conference Verification/Field Verification by the CCB once a government official has satisfied the credentials of the agency.
According to the Executive Chairman of CACOL, Comrade Debo Adeniran, “It is important to note that the purpose of this process would be defeated if the reports and findings of the Bureau are not made public. This is what will give it credibility and the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration’s anti-corruption war.”
“We call for the findings of the CCB to be made accessible to the general public as required by the statues. The Bureau should not relent in its efforts and should be stern in making sure that every government official listed adheres to due process.”
About 76 public officials including Ministers were reported to have been invited but are yet to submit themselves to the exercise. The Ministers include Audu Ogbeh, Rotimi Amaechi, Babatunde Fashola, Senator Udo Udoma, Ibe Kachikwu, Abubakar Malami, Adebayo Shittu, Dr. Kayode Fayemi etc.
The anti-corruption Crusader pointed out that, the list of the ministers that have not submitted themselves to CCB for verification is disappointing, this is because these are the same people who lay claim to integrity and transparency in public glare.”
He said “this is why the imperativeness of making assets declarations by all public officials with the CCB public for purpose of transparency and public scrutiny so as to engender public trust in governance cannot be over emphasized. There is absolutely no reason for public officials to hide their assets if they got them through hard work or other legitimate means. One of the major reasons the CCB was created in the first place was for the verification of assets declared by public officials so as to nip the tendency to make false assets declaration in the bud.”
In concluding, the Executive Chairman said, “the CCB should not hesitate to take appropriate legal and constitutional actions against any public official that fails to honour its invitation for the verification exercise. This will indicate that Bureau is pro-active and ready to carry out its constitutional duties without bothering whose ox is gored.”
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