Assets Declaration: Group Tasks Code Of Conduct Bureau On First Lady

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, Press Releases Saturday, May 23rd, 2015

* Says Patience Jonathan Yet To Declare Assets, 7 Months After Resigning As Perm sec

The Grassroots Initiative for Open and Democratic Governance in Nigeria, GIODGN, has described as totally unacceptable and a flagrant abuse of the laws of the land, the refusal of the outgoing First Lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dame (Dr.) Patience Jonathan to declare her assets, since she resigned her post as a Permanent Secretary in the Bayelsa State Civil Service in October, 2014.

outgoing First Lady of Nigeria, Dame Patience Jonathan

In a statement signed by the group’s National President, Daniel Clapton and the Secretary General, Godstime Innocent, the group notes that, the First Lady’s refusal to declare her assets after stepping down as permanent secretary negates the provisions of the code of conduct act, which requires public servants to declare their assets before and after leaving office.

Part of the statement reads “It is unacceptable and an abuse of our existing laws for anybody, no matter how highly placed, to refuse to do the needful, by not declaring his or her assets, nearly 7 months, after voluntarily resigning from a position. Our institutions must be alive to their responsibilities and that is the only way we can build a strong and virile democracy for the present and future generations of our people”
The statement frowned at the inability of the relevant organs of the government to enforce the existing laws of the land, stressing that, the Code of Conduct Bureau, whose responsibility it is, in the case, should act fast in the interest of the nation’s nascent democracy.

It says, the failure of the Code of Conduct Bureau to perform its statutory and constitutional duties, was not only a big drawback to the nation’s democracy, but a serious disservice to the people of Bayelsa State, where she held the appointment between between July, 2012 and October, 2014.

While blaming both Mrs. Jonathan and the Code of Conduct Bureau for this very obvious lapse, the group calls for an urgent reversal, threatening to institute a legal action, if nothing is done within the shortest possible time.