A coalition of civil society organisations has concluded plans to take a legal action to compel the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) to make assets declared by political office holder’s public.
The coalition said this became imperative to avoid “pre-emptive declaration” by newly elected office holders who were about to assume the positions of leadership.
The anti-corruption group under the aegis of the Coalition of Civil Society Organisations for Good Governance spoke in Lagos at a press conference over developments in Zamfara State vis-à-vis the assets declaration of the new governor, Dauda Lawal.
A report, which recently went viral alleged that the new governor declared assets worth N9tr, which the governor himself has denied and blamed those he described as “mischief makers” for spreading such a lie to cause disaffection for the new government.
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But at the press conference, the convener of the coalition, Olufemi Lawson challenged the governor to lead by example by making his assets declared before the CCB public.
He said the state cannot afford making another mistake in the leadership of the state, which is not only backward but facing the worst form of insecurity despite the rich mineral resources in the state.
He said, “Our challenge now is that it is incumbent on Mr Lawal to lead by example. What we are now asking is for Mr Lawal to tell the world how he made his money and details of his asset declaration, before the Code of Conduct Bureau. We don’t want to hear the usual refrain after his exit when he’s been called to account that he didn’t enter a government a pauper. The era of humongous wealth without enterprise is gone forever. We want to know how he made his trillions so that other governors who are super rich will also follow suit.”
Also speaking, Comrade Declan Ihekaire said, “We are not against Mr. Governor, we are not against being rich but we believe for anyone to occupy a public office, you must be transparent.”
He stated that every hand must be on deck to tackle corruption, which has become a major crisis facing the country.
Comrade Shina Loremikan of Campaign Against Impunity, said despite the resources in Zamfara State, many students can no longer go to school while farmers have abandoned their work because of banditry.
According to him, it is when the assets of the incumbent governor have been made public that he can be properly assessed after four years.
