Abdullahi Bello, Chairman of the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), has disclosed that the bureau has investigated and verified the assets of more than 20 ministers and 30 permanent secretaries as part of efforts to strengthen accountability among public officers.
Bello disclosed this in Abuja on Wednesday at an anti-corruption and asset-tracing stakeholders’ workshop organised by the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA) in collaboration with the Platform to Protect Whistleblowers in Africa.
The CCB chairman said the bureau had moved beyond merely receiving asset declaration forms from public officers to examining the declarations, investigating suspected infractions and prosecuting offenders.
‘We are not submitting forms anymore. Now, we’re examining the forms, we’re also investigating, and we’re also prosecuting,’ he said.
Bello said the bureau had focused its asset verification exercise on high-profile public officers, including ministers, permanent secretaries and officials of health agencies.
‘We have interviewed and verified the relations of more than 20 ministers, 30 permanent secretaries, 32 health agencies, and other high-profile individuals,’ he said.
He explained that the bureau invites public officers to its office for face-to-face examination of their records as part of the verification process.
According to him, the CCB verifies assets declared by public officers at the beginning of their tenure and conducts another verification at the end of their tenure to determine whether there are unexplained changes.
‘One of the key things that we do is that, once you declare your assets at the beginning of your term, we verify it; then we’ll wait for you at the end of your term, and we’ll also verify it.
‘If you see any difference between the beginning and the end, that can only be explained by your non-social income, then we investigate you and prosecute you,’ he said.
Bello, however, said the CCB does not have to wait until the end of an official’s tenure before commencing an investigation.
He said the bureau could investigate a public officer whenever it receives an allegation or intelligence suggesting possible misconduct.
‘But it doesn’t mean that we have to wait for you to finish office before we can investigate you. If there is any allegation against you, we can also investigate. Or if there is intelligence against you, we can also investigate,’ he said.
The CCB chairman described asset tracing as a central component of the bureau’s anti-corruption activities, saying it enables investigations to continue beyond the identification of suspected breaches.
‘Asset tracing is not a side issue. It’s where investigation becomes persistent,’ he said.
Bello also disclosed that the bureau had secured convictions and obtained the forfeiture of properties and funds linked to breaches of the Code of Conduct.
‘For the first time in the life of CCB, we have been able to do that,’ he said.
He said provisions of the Code of Conduct provide for sanctions against public officers found guilty of breaches, including removal from office, disqualification from holding public office and forfeiture of assets acquired through such breaches.
‘If you look at the prohibition of the Code of Conduct, there are three major punishments for Code of Conduct breaches. First, you can be banned from office for 15 years. You can be removed from office. And then finally, the assets that you acquire from a breach can be forfeited to the government,’ he said.
Arigbabu Sulaimon, Executive Secretary of HEDA, said the meeting was aimed at strengthening inter-agency collaboration, intelligence sharing and the role of civil society organisations in combating corruption.
Sulaimon said the workshop was ‘conceptualised not merely as a platform for speeches, but as a technical working session’ designed to advance three core institutional objectives.
He said the first objective was ‘bridging interagency silos and fostering civic synergy,’ stressing the importance of effective information sharing between government agencies and civil society organisations.
‘Realising full accountability requires seamless real-time intelligence exchange among our primary military and enforcement bodies,’ Sulaimon said.
He added that civil society organisations could support investigations through grassroots monitoring and open-source intelligence.
‘Importantly is forging strong operational pipelines with civil society organisations whose grassroots tracking and open-source intelligence tools provide invaluable leads for criminal investigation,’ he said.
Sulaimon also called for greater use of the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) and the statutory mechanisms of the Code of Conduct Bureau in tracing and recovering illicit assets.
‘Operationalising the Proceeds of Crime Act, POCA, is essential to ensure that confiscated assets are not only effectively recovered, but managed and disposed of with absolute public transparency,’ he said.
He further urged authorities to make asset declaration a more effective tool for detecting illicit enrichment and abuse of public office.
‘Furthermore, we must transform the code of conduct we use after the declaration process from a routine and restricted exercise into a dynamic, verifiable mechanism for detecting early signs of illicit enrichment and public office abuse,’ Sulaimon said.
On whistleblower protection, the HEDA executive secretary called for stronger safeguards to encourage individuals to provide information on corruption and other crimes.
‘Whistleblowers remain the single most effective catalyst for uncovering criminal crimes. Yet, without robust statutory protections and safe reporting mechanisms, courageous individuals remain vulnerable to retaliation,’ he said.