₦airaland Forum

– A civil society organisation, Socio-
Economic Rights and Accountability Project
(SERAP) has issued a 14 days ultimatum to
the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) to
investigate named public officers in the
leaked Panama Papers

– The organisation made the request in a
letter dated April 8, 2016, signed by its
executive director, Adetokunbo Mumuni

– The leaked Panama Papers revealed how
high-ranking Nigerians and their families
are increasingly using safe havens and
secrecy jurisdictions like Panama to hide
their ill-gotten wealth


SERAP wants CCB to probe public officers
named in the leaked Panama Papers
The Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) has
received a 14 days ultimatum to go after
named public officers in the leaked Panama
Papers.

A civil society organisation, Socio-Economic
Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP)
told the CCB chairman, Sam Saba to
investigate the current and immediate past
top public officers named in the leaked
documents.

The organisation’s demand was contained in
a letter dated April 8, 2016, signed by its
executive director, Adetokunbo Mumuni, a
copy obtained by Naij.com.


The organisation in the letter asked the CCB
to probe others who are currently operating
or have operated foreign accounts in other
safe havens and jurisdictions.

The organisation called on the CCB to where
appropriate, refer such officers to the Code
of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) for prosecution.
“We would be grateful if the Bureau could
begin to take these steps within 14 days of the
receipt and/or publication of this letter. If we
have not heard from you by then as to the
steps the bureau is taking to address the
concerns raised in this letter, the registered
trustees of SERAP shall take all appropriate
legal actions to compel the bureau to
effectively discharge its constitutional and
statutory mandates in this instance,” the
organisation said.

According to the organization, it believes
that the Panama Papers have shown the
extent to which public officers in the country
are concealing their stolen wealth in safe
havens and secrecy jurisdictions, contrary to
the Code of Conduct for Public Officers
which prohibits public officers from
maintaining and operating foreign accounts.

SERAP expressed optimism that the CCB will
learn from the lessons of the Panama
Papers to fight the abuse of the asset
declaration requirements and not wait for
further international disclosures that may
implicate even more public officers in
corruption and money laundering.

The organization further argued that except
highly placed public officers who use safe
havens and secrecy jurisdictions to breach
the fundamental requirements of asset
declaration are sanctioned, named and
shamed, the sincerity of the asset
declaration regime as a tool of preventing
and combating corruption will continue to be
doubted, and Nigerians will continue to
witness inadequate transparency and
prevalent impunity of corrupt public officers
in the country.

SERAP in the letter hopes that bodies like
the CCB should use this opportunity and
mandate to react swiftly to this international
scandal by taking concrete and proactive
actions to address the growing breaches of
constitutional provisions by top public
officers.

The organization stated that these steps
would be entirely consistent with the
Nigerian 1999 constitution (as amended), the
law establishing the bureau, and will meet
demands by Nigerians for improvement in
transparency regarding asset declarations
and sanctions of public officers for
breaches.

The letter read in parts: “Effective asset
declaration regime can play an important role
in detecting illicit enrichment and preventing
corruption and avoiding the kind of
international embarrassment that the Panama
Papers represents for Nigeria.

“SERAP notes that the aims and objectives of
the CCB include the establishment and
maintenance of a high standard of morality in
the conduct of public business and ensuring
that the actions and behaviour of public
officers conform to the highest standards of
public morality and accountability.

“SERAP notes that provisions on the
declaration of assets by public officers in
Nigeria are entrenched in the Code of Conduct
for Public Officers, contained in Part I of the
Fifth Schedule to the 1999 Nigerian
Constitution. These provisions aim to prevent
corruption and abuse of office, to ensure
transparency in public officers and to prevent
high-ranking public officers operating foreign
accounts to hide their ill-gotten wealth.

“SERAP also notes that acts prohibited by the
Code include a public officer putting himself
in a position where his personal interest
conflicts with his duties and official
responsibilities; holding two posts from which
he is being paid from public funds; and
operating foreign accounts.”

Premium Times which is the only Nigerian
medium that participated in the one year
investigation reports that the Panama
Papers are an unprecedented leak of
11.5million files from the database of the
world’s fourth biggest offshore law firm,
Mossack Fonseca.

The documents were obtained from an
anonymous source by the International
Consortium of Investigative Journalists
(ICIJ). The ICIJ then shared them with a
large network of international partners,
including the Guardian and the BBC. The
documents exposed how corrupt public
officers including some from Nigeria can
exploit secretive offshore regimes to hide
their ill-gotten wealth.

The national leaders both former and current
public officers so far exposed in the Panama
Papers comprised the Senate president,
Senator Bukola Saraki; Senator David Mark
and the former governor of Delta State, chief
James Ononefe Ibori, Toyin Saraki as well as
T.Y Danjuma. These high-ranking Nigerians
and their families are said to be increasingly
using safe havens and secrecy jurisdictions
like Panama to hide their ill-gotten assets.










https://www.naij.com/794503-panamapapers-ccb-gets-ultimatum-go-named-public-officers.html?source=index_main

men go hear am o.....I hear say fashola self dey d list

Saraki is olready in dia hand...dey shud carry t.y danjuma..I can't wait for dat tif to b arrested

Simple

What's wrong with SERAP ?


I am saying that because the full list is yet to be released


There will be more names


Rather than issue ultimatum, i suggest that SERAP hires private security and investigation experts especially Isrealis

let them keep tabs on the names that's been released and the people they have mentioned

don't let anyone escape from the country

by so doing they would have gathered enough evidence to convict those that's been indicted by #TheList


but their common sense won't tell them that.

DaBullIT:
What's wrong with SERAP ?


I am saying that because the full list is yet to be released


There will be more names


Rather than issue ultimatum, i suggest that SERAP hires private security and investigation experts especially Isrealis

let them keep tabs on the names that's been released and the people they have mentioned

don't let anyone escape from the country

by so doing they would have gathered enough evidence to convict those that's been indicted by #TheList


but their common sense won't tell them that.

OK u haf said it