Why Buhari and Osinbajo asset declaration cannot be made public

                     

The asset declaration of President Buhari and Osinbajo,cannot be made public according to Code of Conduct Bureau.
The CBB said that the Federal law Limits the Bureau from making the asset public,but the presidency said that the assets will be made public after the CBB has authenticate the claims in the declaration forms.

A civil society group, Stop Impunity Nigeria, an affiliate of the Centre for Social Justice, had on June 1, 2015 applied to the CCB to request copies of the completed assets declaration forms by the President and his deputy.


But, in its response CCB/HQ/670/G/1/104 dated June 10, 2015 and signed by Ijeanuli Ofor on behalf of the Chairman, the CCB declined the request, citing the absence of prescribed law by the National Assembly authorizing the release of such information to the public.

The Bureau however, conceded the right by Nigerians under section 1(1) 3 and 4 of the FOIA 2011, to “access or request information, whether written or not in written form, in the custody of any public agency”.

But ‘’sections 12(1) (a) (v), 14(1) (b) and 15(1)9a) of the same Act empowered it to decline any request, which it considered an invasion of personal privacy. 

“Assets declarations by public officers contain such personal information, which falls within the exemptions to the disclosure of information in the FOIA,” the Bureau added, explaining further that, paragraph 3(c of the Third Schedule, Part 1 of the constitution (as amended) empowered it to “make assets declarations of public officers available for inspection by any citizen of Nigeria only on terms and conditions prescribed by the National Assembly.

“However, the terms and conditions under which that can be done have not yet been prescribed by the National Assembly.”