President Buhari says no need for FOI, vows to declare assets publicly

President Muhammadu Buhari has said that in fulfilment of one of their campaign promises, his declared assets and those of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo will be released to the public upon the completion of their verification by the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB).

His clarification will lay to rest critics about his statement early this week that anyone who needs to see it has to request for it via an FOI request to the Code of Conduct Bureau.

The president expressed hope that the verification process by CCB will be completed before the expiry of the 100-day deadline within which he promised to declare his assets.

The Senior Special Assistant, SSA (Media and Publicity), Mal. Garba Shehu who announced this in a statement on behalf of the President on Saturday, 6 June, said “the duly completed forms by both the President and the Vice President were submitted to the CCB on March 28th, a clear day ahead of their inauguration.”

He said this statement was warranted by the need to clarify some suggestions that the President and the Vice-President may not, after all, declare their assets publicly.

“While such public display of concern is appreciated and valued, it must be said that it is a little precipitate.

“As required by law, the declaration and submission of documents to the CCB have been made, but there still remains the aspect of verification which the Bureau will have to conduct to authenticate the submissions made to it.

“In the circumstances, it is only after this verification exercise, and not before, that the declaration can be said to have been made and validated; and only after this, will the details be released to the public.

“There is no question at all that the President and the Vice President are committed to public declaration of their assets within the 100 days that they pledged during the presidential campaign.

“The President and the Vice President wish to thank Nigerians for their show of concern, and for the confidence they have shown in their leaders”.

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