Asset declaration: I have no new houses, shares – Buhari declares

President Muhammadu Buhari submitted his asset declaration forms to the Code of Conduct Bureau on Tuesday, meeting the May 28 deadline the bureau set for public officers to make their end of tenure declaration.

Buhari will be inaugurated for a second term on Wednesday (today) for another four years.

By constitutional provisions, the declaration is mandatorily to precede his oath-taking today.

“The duly completed forms were submitted to the Chairman of the CCB, Prof Mohammed Isa, on behalf of the President by Sarki Abba, Senior Special Assistant, Household and Domestic Affairs”, the Presidency said last night in a statement by Buhari’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr Garba Shehu.

The President claimed not to own new property than the assets he declared in 2015 when he began his first term.

The Presidency said, “The forms, as signed by the President and sworn to before a Judge of Abuja High Court, showed no significant changes in assets as declared in 2015 by him.

“There are no new houses, no new bank accounts at home and abroad and there are no new shares acquired.

“The chairman of the CCB commended the President for leading by example by declaring his assets in accordance with the law.”

The PUNCH recalls that Buhari in 2015, through a statement by Shehu, mentioned the assets he had declared at the CCB before assuming office.

On the list released in September, 2015, Buhari stated that he had N30m in his bank account before he assumed office in May of that year.

In addition to owning 270 cows, 25 sheep, five horses, birds and economic trees, there were five houses in Kaduna, Daura, Kano and Abuja. He said the Daura houses were made of “mud.”

He also owned a plot of land each in Port Harcourt and Kano; farms, an orchard and some cars.

The President operated an account with Union Bank, but the statement said he neither owned a foreign account nor any company/factory.

Among the property declared were shares in Berger Paints, Union Bank and Skye Bank.

The Presidency had said further, “The retired general uses a number of cars, two of which he bought from his savings and the others supplied to him by the Federal Government in his capacity as a former Head of State.

“The rest were donated to him by well-wishers after his jeep was damaged in a Boko Haram bomb attack on his convoy in July 2014.”

For Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, the Presidency stated that he had, “A bank balance of about N94m and 900,000 United States Dollars in his bank accounts.”

The houses owned by Osinbajo back then were listed as “four-bedroomed residence on Victoria Garden City, Lagos, and a three-bedroom flat on 2, Mosley Road, Ikoyi;  two-bedroom flat on Redemption Camp along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and a 2-bedroom mortgaged property in Bedford, England.”

The Presidency added, “Apart from his law firm, known as SimmonsCooper, the vice-president also declared shareholding in six private companies based in Lagos, including Octogenerium Limited, Windsor Grant Limited, Tarapolsa, Vistorion Limited, Aviva Limited and MTN Nigeria.”