Chairman of the Code of Conduct Bureau, Mr. Sam Saba

Chairman of the Code of Conduct, Sam Saba on Tuesday in Abuja revealed that 134,717 public officers had not yet declared their assets.

230,298 eligible public officers were identified and issued with the asset declaration forms for completion but only 109,026 completed and returned forms for processing and storage the chairman said.

Saba also said the bureau had concluded the verification of assets declared by ministers, state governors, secretaries to state government commissioners, as well as other top government officials.

Saba said the verification of assets declared by local government chairmen, councillors and supervisors of the 774 local councils were ongoing and that the bureau had received a total of 84 petitions this year, adding that 20 were investigated, while five were referred to the legal unit for advice.

He explained that 10 of the petitions passed the screening for prosecution, while a total of 26 were under investigation and three kept in view.

At a ministerial press briefing to mark the establishment’s achievements during the year in Abuja on Tuesday, the chairman of the CCB, Saba, said instead of planning to scrap the Bureau, the lawmakers should strengthen the agency.

“The National Assembly should enact an Act prescribing the terms and conditions under which the Bureau could make assets declared by public officers available for inspection by any citizen of Nigeria as provided for in paragraph 3(c) of the Third Schedule to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999.”

He added that the proposed Act would “enhance the effectiveness of the Bureau to check corruption in the public service in the Federation.”

Further investigation uncovered properties acquired by the council chief while he held sway between 2007 and 2011, first as interim chairman and later as substantive Chairman.

The properties scattered in different locations in the state include a farm house, private school, (ABC Academy, Zaria which is an acronym of his nick name Abasco), residential houses and a block industry all in Kaduna State.

Apart from the alleged properties, it was also been discovered that the suspect converted some of the local government properties to his personal use. The suspect has made useful statement while investigation continues.

The ICPC yesterday arraigned two officials of the office of the Head of Service of the Federation before Justice Hussein Baba-Yusuf for corruptly enriching themselves with pension funds.

They are John Emmanuel and Gloria Philadjigbey. Emmanuel, a Data Processing Officer, was attached to the Pensions Reform Task Team (PRTT) while Philadjigbey worked as an Office Assistant in the same office.

The ICPC arraigned them on a 31-count charge bordering on dishonestly through insertion of “ghost” pensioners on the e-pension data base to perpetrate a N30 million fraud.

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