Palpable panic and confusion seem to have gripped officials of the Code of Conduct Bureau, CCB, after records relating to the asset declaration of former governor of lagos State and national Leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, Ahmed Bola Tinubu, suddenly disappeared from the storage facility that has held them for years.
The disappearance of the case file could potentially frustrate the ongoing corruption investigation into Tinubu’s asset by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Nigeria’s frontline anti-corruption outfit, which has apparently ignored the embattled politician’s political ties to President Muhammadu Buhari.
Investigations revealed that three officials of the CCB, familiar with the matter, said that the bureau started looking for Tinubu’s asset filings after the EFCC requested copies, as part of an ongoing investigation into the Jagaban of Borgu’s financial and material possessions.
CompassNG gathered that several offices have been rummaged at the bureau, as officials scrambled to produce the documents for EFCC’s use, all efforts have proved abortive.
A top management of the CCB siad, “We have searched for the case file everywhere, because we want to comply with the lawful request made by the EFCC.
“We have not been able to find the documents either at the main head office or the annexe office in Asokoro.”
Another official who interacted with one of the mid-level staffers tasked with finding the documents rev lawd that the matter had become “terribly embarrassing,” and a cause for unending worry at the bureau, which is the primary anti-corruption agency in charge of collecting and keeping schedule of assets of government officials before and after assumption of office.
The official said, “We cannot find the asset documents at all. We cannot even find photocopies that we can certify for the EFCC.”
Tinubu was the governor of Lagos State between 1999 and 2007.
Officials said he declared his assets when he assumed office and when he concluded his second term in May 2007.
Recall that despite anti-graft agencies previously investigated and charged Tinubu on the basis of the documents in 2011, but the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT, which primarily hears cases brought by the bureau, dismissed the matter on technical grounds, leaving the merit of the case floating for nearly a decade.
No further charges had been preferred against the ruling party chieftain ever since.
However, the story changed the moment his aspiration for the highest office in the land gathers momentum ahead of 2023, anti-corruption officials said that they’re now convinced by “institutional memory” that Tinubu’s asset filings were incriminating and so, they must revisit the matter to prevent “another rogue” from assuming power in a country still reeling from decades of infamy.
One EFCC official, who pleaded anonymity said, “His asset declaration form will not be the only reason for us to arrest and charge him, but our detectives and lawyers working on the case said it is likely to be seriously incriminating.”
Both the CCB and EFCC officials, who spoke on the current situation pleaded for confidentiality, citing especially their active engagement status and a lack of clearance to speak to journalists on a matter still under investigation.
CCB’s spokesman did not return a request seeking comments on the missing files; while another EFCC spokesman also declined comments.
Although the EFCC has yet to escalate the disappearance of Tinubu’s asset filings to the Presidency, concerns have nonetheless been flaring amongst top officials of the CCB, according to an insider official.
While some officials believed the document might have been stolen by an intruder, others blamed “an inside job” for the development, citing its security.
Another official said, “Tinubu’s file is one of the VVIP files that is kept with either the chairman or someone he trusts immensely. So claiming that it was stolen from an outsider at the time the EFCC is requesting for it is just so convenient.”
The official said an internal investigation has yet to commence about the disappearance, but the EFCC might be forced to report the CCB, which is a department under the federal cabinet secretary’s office.
He added, “We don’t know how many palms have been oiled to make a sensitive document disappeared from our vault. We are not going to blame Tinubu for it, because he did not come in here to snatch it from us, some people were used.”
The EFCC first wrote to the CCB requesting for Tinubu’s asset declaration details in September, 2020; but the anti-graft agency was forced to repeat the request, when the asset fraud office could not produce Tinubu’s case file.
Since then, the CCB has not been able to comply with the EFCC’s request, effectively stalling the case, according to officials at both the CCB and EFCC.
Still, anti-graft officials said they are treating the file drama more as a temporary setback for concerned agencies than a day of reckoning averted for the former governor.
Another official added, “We take all corruption cases very seriously. So we will find a way out of every setback that we are likely to encounter before the prosecution stage.”
Meanwhile, anti-graft officials also emphasised that Tinubu’s asset filings, while potentially incriminating enough, will not be the only ground for his arraignment, which they said President Buhari has not commented on, despite Tinubu’s attempt to quash the matter.
An official disclosed, “We have other petitions bordering on his corruption; we are proceeding with every lead we have, because we have not heard anything from the Presidency to the contrary.”
The President has powers to stop a criminal trial, as all law enforcement institutions are under his absolute control, but a Presidency official said Buhari might be reluctant to wade into the matter, because of the weighty allegations against Tinubu.
An official,who pleaded not to be mentioned said, “The President still respects Asiwaju Tinubu as a strong ally; but the allegations against him are weighty and if they are not thrashed out now, another government may eventually be forced to do so in future.”
Although no official memo has been circulated in respect to the charges against Tinubu, there are strong indications that his infamous bullion vans on the eve of the 2019 elections and his involvement in the movement of suspicious funds from Lagos treasury into Alpha-Beta Consulting might be his undoing.
An official added, “We have a petition from a group in Abuja that we should investigate the bullion vans. It is possible that both the bullion vans and the case with Alpha-Beta will complement each other if the matter goes to trial.”
A spokesman for Tinubu did not return a request seeking comments about his principal’s missing files.
The former governor of Lagos has long denied all claims of corruption, as the handiwork of his political detractors, and he was even more confident of not facing any charges following his undisputed role in bringing Buhari to power. Respected political analysts said Tinubu, through funding and resources, led the efforts to make Buhari appealing to Nigerians, who have rejected him at the poll as an ethnic and religious partisan.
Whereas he expected a great degree of influence under Buhari’s government, Mr. Tinubu has been left largely disappointed, and, in some cases, deliberately slighted by those with domineering influence on the President.
