A statement by the Senior Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Garba Shehu said “the documents submitted to the CCB, which officials say are still being vetted and will soon be made public, show that prior to being sworn in on May 29, President Buhari had less than N30 million to his name. He also had only one bank account, with the Union Bank. President Buhari had no foreign account, no factory and no enterprises. He also had no registered company and no oil wells”, the statement said.
The statement further added that “the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), who had been a successful lawyer before his foray into politics declared a bank balance of about N94 million and 900,000 United States Dollars in his bank accounts”.
It added that President Buhari “had shares in Berger Paints, Union Bank and Skye Bank”.
The documents also revealed that “President Buhari had a total of five homes, and two mud houses in Daura. He had two homes in Kaduna, one each in Kano, Daura and in Abuja. One of the mud houses in Daura was inherited from his late older sister, another from his late father. He borrowed money from the old Barclays Bank to build two of his homes.
“President Buhari also has two undeveloped plots of land, one in Kano and the other in Port Harcourt. He is still trying to trace the location of the Port Harcourt land.
“In addition to the homes in Daura, he has farms, an orchard and a ranch. The total number of his holdings in the farm include 270 heads of cattle, 25 sheep, five horses, a variety of birds and a number of economic trees”.
The documents also showed that 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 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″.
The same forms, according to Mr Shehu, notes that ” Vice-President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo’s asset declaration includes his 4-bedroom residence at Victoria Garden City, Lagos and a 3-bedroom flat at 2 Mosley Road, Ikoyi. The Vice President also has a 2-bedroom flat at the popular Redemption Camp along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and a 2-bedroom mortgaged property in Bedford, England.
“Apart from his law firm, known as SimmonsCooper, the Vice-President also declared shareholding in six private companies based in Lagos, including Octogenerium Ltd., Windsor Grant Ltd., Tarapolsa, Vistorion Ltd., Aviva Ltd. and MTN Nigeria.
“His personal vehicles are one Infinity 4-Wheel Drive SUV, one Mercedes Benz and a Prado Jeep.
“As soon as the CCB is through with the process, the documents will be released to the Nigerian public and people can see for themselves,” Mr Shehu said.
According to Mr. Rahman Akanni of the Solidarity Action Network (SAN), "The assets declaration by the duo of the president and the vice-president which was just made public has confirmed their determination to lead by example and defeat the scourge of corruption which has been our bane and archilee’s heel since independence, once and for all, but which worsened during the last administration’s tour of duty. My take on this vexatious issue all along has been that if they stopped at the Code of Conduct Bureau’s level, then, they would only have done what GEJ did, but their spokespersons insisted they would do it before their first hundred days and I can only congratulate them as they are now on the same page with the late former President Umaru Musa Yar adua as far as the issue is concerned.
A die-hard pro-PDP Nigeria, Mr. Afolabi Emmanuel had this to say, "I think am beginning to love these guys! After the speach delivered by the VP, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo at the just concluded ICAN conference in Abuja and the recently asset declaration by both the VP and the President, I am beginning to think that these guys are sincere, I just hope they will mandate the criminals hovering around them to do the same."
While the declaration is a welcome development, it must be noted that the public declaration has been made by Senior Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the President, Mr Garba Shehu ahead of the release of the verified document for viewing by the public.
Part of this article was first published by Channels TV
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