Abuja – A legal practitioner, Mr Beluolisa Nwofor, on Monday said that it was mandatory for all public servants to declare their assets before they could serve the public.
Nwofor, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), told the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja that it was mandatory for all public servants to declare their assets and liabilities.
He said that it was a very clear provision of the law and constitution that all public officers, not just political office holders, must declare their assets.
“The constitution has a provision for public office holders and political office holders, starting from the President and Vice-President.
“It also involves the governors, ministers and commissioners and then, down the line to the Clerk of the National Assembly, as well as other members of staff.
“They are all bound by the law to declare their assets, as long as they are in the public service, and this public service includes that of the state and the federation.
“You must declare your assets and liabilities, including your children under the age of 18, you have to also declare their assets and liabilities.
“it is very important and failure to comply is visited with sanctions”, he said.[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”70560″]
Nwofor said Section 11 of the Code of Conduct for public officers required that all public officers must declare their assets, as provided for in the 5th schedule of the constitution.
According to him, the importance of it is in the requirement that a President cannot start to execute the functions of his office until he has declared his assets and liabilities.
“The vice president, governors, deputy governors, ministers, commissioners must do the same, but the only one we heard of was that of the President and vice president,” he said.
Nwofor said that no one had heard from the state governors, their commissioners and even the recently appointed ministers, declaring assets and liabilities.
“We will also like to hear that they comply with the constitutional requirement,” he said.
The lawyer said that “declaring assets shows that you are going to be honest , shun corruption and abuse of office and it is also a benchmark for you to be judged at the end of your tenure.
“The grounds for removing a judge may include misconduct, inability to perform the duties of his office and breach of code of conduct.
“A judge can be asked to leave office because he didn’t his declare assets; that shows how serious the constitutional provision is,” he added. (NAN)