The Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) has announced Tuesday as the deadline for public officers, whose tenure ends on May 29, to submit their ‘end-of-tenure asset declaration forms’.

This was disclosed in a ‘Public Service Announcement’, a copy which was reported by PREMIUM TIMES, on Monday at the CCB Headquarters in Abuja.

The statement said members of the outgoing 8th National Assembly, who were inaugurated on June 9, 2015, would have to declare their assets on or before June 8.

It is mandatory for elected and re-elected public Nigerian officials to fill the forms providing details of all asset owned and acquired before and while in office.

The CCB, established in 1979, has as its primary responsibility, the checking of corrupt practices in the Nigerian public service.

The public officers the statement is apparently targeting include President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Governors, President and Deputy President of the Senate; Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives; all lawmakers at the state and federal levels and other political appointees whose tenure will soon be ending.

Citing sections 52,94, and 185 of the Nigerian constitution, the CCB explained that the provisions compel public officers to declare their assets to the force “immediately after taking office and thereafter.”

The law also says the governor of a state must declare his/her assets before embarking on his/her duties as an executive.

”Paragraphs 1 to 16 of Part II of the Fifth Schedule of the Nigerian Constitution list the categories of public officers who must periodically declare their assets to the CCB.

”Every member of Senate, House Representatives and State House of Assembly shall before taking his seat to declare his assets and liabilities as prescribed in the constitution.

”Likewise, a person elected to the office of the governor of the state shall not begin to perform the functions of that office until he has declared his assets and liabilities as prescribed by the constitution

”Paragraph 11 of the Part 1 to the Fifth Schedule to the constitution compels public officers to declare their assets to the CCB “immediately after taking office and thereafter:

“(a) at the end of every four years; and

“(b) at the end of his term of office, submit to the Code of Conduct Bureau a written declaration of all his properties, assets, and liabilities and those of his unmarried children under the age of eighteen years.”

PREMIUM TIMES reported how President Buhari received a new set of Code of Conduct forms after winning reelection for a second term during the presidential election in February this year.

Meanwhile, the spokesperson of Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, Sam Onwuemeodo, told PREMIUM TIMES that the governor would declare his assets.

Also, the Chief Press Secretary to outgoing Governor Muhammed Abubakar of Bauchi, Abubakar Siddique, said he has no idea if the governor had declared his assets to the CCB.