Lawyer sues Buhari, Osinbajo for failing to declare assets publicly

A lawyer and activist, Kabir Akingbolu has dragged President Muhammadu Buhari and his deputy, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, to a Federal High Court in Lagos for failing to keep to their electioneering promise of declaring their assets publicly.

Other defendants in the suit are the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB).

Akingbolu, who initiated the suit, is contending that by declaring their assets secretly, Buhari and 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.

During the 2015 electioneering campaign, Muhammadu Buhari and his deputy, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, promised Nigerians that if elected, they will declare their assets publicly.


But after winning the 2015 presidential election, Buhari and Osinbajo secretly declared their assets to the CCB , a development which drew public condemnation from Nigerians who viewed the actin as a breach of trust
Akingbolu, in an affidavit in support of the suit, is seeking an order of the court declaring that it was mandatory for the CCB to publicly publish the assets of Buhari and Osinbajo.
He is also seeking a declaration that the secret declaration of assets by Buhari and 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.

The activist recalled in his affidavit that Buhari and 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 further said  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.

The lawyer raised alarm that CCB has been shielding Buhari and Osinbajo by not publicising their purported declaration of assets in line with the law.

Saying “I know as a fact as a legal practitioner that Buhari and Osinbajo are duty bound to declare their assets publicly and it will be in the interest of justice, public peace and good governance to grant the reliefs in this suit,” he averred.

Although no date has been fixed for hearing of the case, Akingbolu said the conspiracy by Buhari, Osinbajo and CCB to deprive Nigerians of knowing the assets purportedly declared by them is  clearly unconstitutional.