Assets Declaration Compulsory For Tinubu, Others – INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that to vie for any elective offices, politicians and other office seekers would be mandated to declare their assets, particularly their bank account statements before and during the 2023 elections.

Platforms Africa reports that the National leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, is one of those who have publicly declared intention to vie for elective positions in the forthcoming election.

The commission explained that plans have been concluded to beam its searchlight by engaging relevant stakeholders to track politicians and political parties’ sources of funds during the electioneering campaigns for next year’s election.

The INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, said that in achieving its aim, the commission would be setting up committes comprising members from Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Department of State Services (DSS), Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), among others to monitor election expenditure.

Yakubu announced the plans on Friday in Abuja during a policy roundtable conference on political campaign finance organised by The Electoral Forum, an organ of the Initiative for Research, Innovation and Advocacy in Development with support from MacArthur Foundation.

Represented by a National Commissioner, Kunle Ajayi, the INEC boss noted that the commission would be following the Nigerian constitution and electoral act in ensuring free, fair and credible elections, and that it would also monitor the movement of money on election days to prevent vote-buying at polling units.

“As long as we have not notified anybody that the race to the 2023 general election has started, we are not unaware of what anybody is doing. We follow the law strictly.

“We have not officially declared notice for the 2023 general election, but when we so declare, we will put our monitoring committees to motion like the Central Bank of Nigeria, DSS, EFCC, the ICPC, (commercial) banks and other law enforcement agencies. We have that plan already.

“Every candidate must be made to declare his bank asset. That is where they draw out their money, so we will make them present their statement of account right from the onset.

“We will make it mandatory for them to turn in their bank statement so that if they say they are doing billboard and the account remains the same, then there is a problem.”

Related posts

Leave a Comment