Tukur Buratai, to be investigated by the code of conduct bureau on assest declaration, to determine whether or not he is culpable of false asset declaration.
Mr. Buratai, a lieutenant general, was enmeshed in asset declaration scandal after evidence emerged that he owned property in Dubai.
The Nigerian Army in June admitted that Mr. Buratai owned property in Dubai but said they were legal and he declared them in his asset declaration form.
“It is a fact that the Buratai family have two properties in Dubai that were paid for instalmentally through personal savings three years ago,” the army spokesperson Sani Usman said. “This, along with other personal asset have consistently been declared by General Buratai in his Asset Declaration Form as Commander Multinational Joint Task Force Commander and as Chief of Army Staff”.
Dissatisfied with the army’s response, as well as concerned with more reports suggesting the army chief violated Nigerian laws in acquiring the property, a civic group asked the Code of Conduct Bureau, CCB, to investigate and prosecute Mr. Buratai for false asset declaration.
“Evidence of payments (payment tellers of Skye bank) made on behalf of General Buratai and published by Sahara Reporters shows that one of the properties was purchased after the assumption of office by General Buratai as Chief of Army Staff. The payment was effected and contract consummated between July 24 and August 17, 2016,” the Civil Society Network against Corruption, CSNAC, wrote in its petition to the CCB.
“It would be important for your Bureau to investigate the source of this acquisition and the differences between the General’s most recent asset declaration and the penultimate one,” CSNAC’s head, Olanrewaju Suraju, wrote while calling for Mr. Buratai’s prosecution.