I’m Not On Any Travel Ban List - Ekweremadu


Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, yesterday denied media report that he was on the list of Nigerians barred from traveling out of the country on the request of the Special Presidential Investigative Panel on the Recovery of Public Property.

According to a statement by Ekweremadu’s Special Adviser, Media, Uche Anichukwu, Ekweremadu, was not in court with the panel or any other government agency over any corruption case, adding that it was the panel that sued him, with the excuse that he allegedly “neglected to declare” his assets “in the manner prescribed by the Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property”.

A statement yesterday by Ekweremadu’s Special Adviser, Media, Uche Anichukwu, read, “ the attention of the Office of the Deputy President of the Senate has been drawn to a misleading report by a national newspaper that Senator Ike Ekweremadu has been barred from traveling out of the country on the request of the Special Presidential Investigative Panel on the Recovery of Public Property.

“For purpose of clarification and emphasis, the Office wishes to restate that Ekweremadu is not in court with the panel or any other government agency over any corruption case. He was rather sued by the SPIP on the grounds that he, in the Panel’s words, allegedly “neglected to declare” his assets “in the manner prescribed by the Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property”.

“Ekweremadu’s position is that the Constitution demands every public officer to declare his or her assets to the Code of Conduct Bureau every four years, a provision he had since fulfilled, hence his refusal to fill fresh asset declaration forms forwarded to him by the panel contrary to the constitution.

“It is also his position that the Public Property Special Provisions Act, CAP R4 LFN, 2004, otherwise known as Decree No 3, 1984, which the Panel relied on to charge public officials to court has become obsolete and the power to investigate non-asset declaration is now vested in the Code of Conduct Bureau by the 1999 Constitution (as amended). Therefore, only the Code of Conduct Bureau can receive asset declaration forms from public officers.”

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Army Holds Private Burial For 100 Soldiers Killed By Boko Haram

Image
The Nigerian Army has organised a private burial for over 100 officers and soldiers killed during terrorist attacks on Nigerian Army 157 Task Force Battalion last month, The PUNCH has learnt. Our correspondent was told by one of the widows of the officers that the burial would take place in Maiduguri on Friday. It was, however, learnt that the army wanted the event to be private so that the real number of slain soldiers will not be known. One of the widows who did not wish to be identified said, “I was invited for the burial of my husband with a few others this Friday in Maiduguri. “Sincerely, we don’t even know how many will be buried and the army is not giving us any information.” A colonel, who spoke to our correspondent on condition of anonymity, said the army decided to make the burial private in order to hide the true casualty figure. He said, “Gen Buratai said only 23 soldiers were killed in the attack. He also put the number of troops wounded in action at 31. How...
Read more

Rep Members Who Will Not Return To The House In 2019 (see List)

Image
Ahead of the 2019 general elections, at least 50 per cent of the 360 House of Representatives members of the eighth assembly will not return to the ninth assembly next year. A review by News men show that many of these lawmakers either lost the primary elections that were recently concluded or have moved to seek different elective positions. Below are some of the House members who are certainly not returning in 2019 for various reasons. ABIA In Abia, the member representing Bende federal constituency, Nnenna Elendu-Ukeje, is not returning to the house as she did not clinch the ticket of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the last election. Unlike many of her colleagues, she did not seek to contest on a different platform. ADAMAWA Three out of the eight House of Representatives members from the state are not coming back. Out of the three, two lost the APC primary while the third contested for the Senate but failed to clinch the ticket. The two lawmakers who lost...
Read more