The constitution demands state Governors to declare their assets before they begin to perform the duties of their new office, but over a month down the line, many state governors are yet to declare their assets as requested by the constitution.
The provisions of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria stipulates that public office holders should make adequate declaration of their assets before resuming office and the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) was mandated to oversee this task.
The CCB has now bemoaned the reluctance of some state governors to declared their assets as contained in the CCB Act. The agency's Chairman, Sam Saba revealed this during a press briefing with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
He said, "the president and the vice-president declared their assets before they took oaths of office in compliance with Schedule Seven of the Constitution. The people we are having problem with now are some governors, but I cannot be categorical in terms of statistics.
“The governors are not even supposed to start work as political office holders until they declare their assets. It is provided in Section 185 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended. It reads that: a person elected to the office of a governor of a state shall not begin to perform the function of that office until he has declared his assets and liabilities.”
Saba said that despite this, some governors were inaugurated without doing so. He attributed this to ignorance of this section by the governors.
“It is not like they are not willing to declare, but because of the erroneous impression that they have up to three months within which to declare their assets and liabilities.
“But the issue is that they are supposed to have declared before being sworn in as governors,” he added.