Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP has called on the Code of Conduct Bureau, CCB to investigate current and past high-ranking public officers named in the Panama Papers for operating foreign accounts in safe havens.
In a petition to CCB Chairman, Mr Sam Saba, SERAP demanded that the indicted individuals be referred to the Code of Conduct Tribunal for prosecution.
The petition letter dated 8 April 2016 and signed by SERAP's Executive Director, Adetokunbo Mumuni threatened legal action if its demands were not addressed within fourteen days.
“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.”
SERAP's demands from CCB are to:
1. Promptly, thoroughly and transparently investigate and verify high-ranking public officers’ asset declaration forms including those submitted by current and immediate past governors of the 36 states of the federation and the current and immediate past leaders of the National Assembly to find out those who have made false declarations in order to cover up assets illegally acquired in corruption or abuse of office;
2. Name and shame anyone found to have breached the Code of Conduct for Public Officers through the use of safe havens and secrecy jurisdictions like Panama, and refer such person to the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT for prosecution
3. Promptly, thoroughly and transparently investigate and prosecute former governors who currently serve in the National Assembly after their ‘retirement’ as governors and continue to receive remuneration from public funds in addition to their pension and emolument.
4. Promptly, thoroughly and transparently investigate, name and shame and where appropriate and there is sufficient admissible evidence refer to the Code of Conduct Tribunal for prosecution, high-ranking public officers who perform the functions of their offices before submitting their asset declaration forms to the Code of Conduct Bureau. SERAP believes that since the declaration of assets precedes the taking of oath of office and oath of allegiance, a fortiori, a political office holder cannot, strictly speaking, legally assume office before declaring his assets;
5. Work closely with other anti-corruption agencies to make it harder for corrupt public officers to access the international financial system such as Panama to hide and enjoy their ill-gotten wealth
6. Promptly, thoroughly and transparently investigate and where appropriate and there is sufficient admissible evidence refer to the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT for prosecution, public officers using shell companies to hide their identity and ill-gotten wealth. In cases of false declarations, the Code of Conduct Bureau should publish an open list of the beneficial owner/controller of all companies and trusts;
7. Share information on asset declaration forms submitted by public officers with banks to prevent corruption-related money laundering.
SERAP noted in the petition that the “Panama Papers are an unprecedented leak of 11.5m files from the database of the world’s fourth biggest offshore law firm, Mossack Fonseca. The records 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 show the myriad ways in which corrupt public officers including from Nigeria can exploit secretive offshore regimes to hide their ill-gotten wealth.”
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