It was gathered on Saturday that only a few Customs and Army officers had filled the assets declaration form. The Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service had on January 15 ordered the its personnel to declare their assets within two weeks. On Thursday, the Acting Director, Army, Public Relations, Col. Sani Kukasheka, in a statement, said the Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen. Tukur Buratai, had ordered all army officers to declare their assets. Sources at the Customs and the Army, who confided our reporter, said many officers of the two services had not filled the assets declaration form. The sources, who did not specify the number of officers that had complied with the directives, said, “Most of us are going to do it this week. We have not been given the form.” In the interview with one of our correspondents, the Director, Defence Information, Brig.-Gen. Rabe Abubakar, said the military would always obey the directives of its leaders. “The soldiers cannot disobey their chief. It is a no option situation when an order is given,” he said. However, a source who spoke to our reporter on condition of anonymity, said Army personnel had not received a circular on the issue. He added that they were waiting to get the form for the expected asset declaration. When contacted on the number of officers that had complied with the directive, the Public Relations Officer, NCS, Mr. Wale Adeniyi, told one of our correspondents in a telephone interview on Saturday that such statistics could only be provided by the CCB. He said, “They (customs officers) don’t declare their assets in customs. It is done at the Code of Conduct Bureau. They pick the forms and submit at the bureau and it is only there that you can get the number of officers that have complied. “The directive has been issued by the CG and the rest is left for the CCB to perform their duties. So the Code of Conduct is where you will get the level of compliance.” When contacted, the Code of Conduct of Bureau said the level of response by officers of the NCS to the directive was low. In an exclusive interview with one of our correspondents on Saturday, the Head, Press and Protocol Unit of CCB, Mrs. Iyabo Akinwale, said an insignificant number of Customs’ men had visited the bureau to obtain the assets declaration form. “For Customs, the response has been low. They have only been coming to us in Abuja one by one,” Akinwale said. She however explained that what the Customs authorities ought to have done to ensure a full compliance was to have sent the “nominal rolls” of its staff to the CCB so that it could provide the adequate number of forms. Akinwale said the Bureau’s Director, Federal Public Service, Salisu Abubakar, had last week Tuesday written to the Customs authorities for them to send their staff’s nominal rolls to the CCB. “Our Director, Federal Public Service had last Tuesday written to the Customs to send their nominal tolls to us. We also instructed our state offices to write to the state commands of Customs to do the same,” the CCB spokesperson said. She however could not ascertain whether the Customs had at the federal and state command levels had responded to the letter by the CCB. A circular signed by the Comptroller-General of Customs and addressed to all Deputy Comptrollers-General, Zonal Coordinators and Customs Area Controllers had said the directive on assets declaration was aimed at ensuring transparency and compliance with the rule of law. According to the circular, the directive was in line with “the Bank Employees Declaration of Assets Act Cap B1 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.”]]>