SERAP Asks Tinubu, Atiku, Obi, Kwankwaso To Publish Their Assets Before Presidential Election

A civic organisation, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), has asked all presidential candidates for the February election to publish their assets before the poll.

SERAP in a statement published via its official Twitter handle on Thursday, specifically urged the candidates of the All Progressives Congress, Peoples Democratic Party, Labour Party and the New Nigeria Peoples Party, Bola Tinubu, Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi and Rabiu Kwankwaso respectively to publish their assets for Nigerians to see before the election.

"Atiku must publish his assets before elections, Tinubu must publish his assets before elections, Obi must publish his assets before elections, and Kwankwaso must publish his assets before elections," SERAP said.

Meanwhile, the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress, Omoyele Sowore, in July publicly declared his assets ahead of the 2023 general elections.

SERAP had challenged the activist to publish details of his assets and to publicly commit to rejecting vote-buying and electoral bribery before and during the elections.

“Dear ‪@YeleSowore Ahead of the February 2023 presidential election, we're again calling on you to show leadership by urgently publishing details of your assets and publicly rejecting vote-buying and electoral bribery before and during the elections,” SERAP had tweeted then.

Responding, Sowore said he had two cars, a bungalow in New Jersey, US and another house in his hometown in Ondo State worth N5 million among other assets.

He added that he had never operated an offshore account nor hidden any asset in a tax haven.

“I have 2 used cars: a Toyota Camry & Lexus RX 350, a home in my village worth maybe N5m, three iPhones, a Galaxy Note 10 Lite (if you could call those assets), SaharaReporters Media Group (don’t know the worth as of today), a four bedroom bungalow in New Jersey & nothing more,” Sowore said.

“The Federal government of Nigeria froze my bank accounts since 2019 after I was arrested over ‪#RevolutionNow protest on August 3rd 2019. A ‪@gtbank account I operated in Nigeria had N4,800 left in before my arrest, I managed to open a ‪ @kudabankhelp with N463.00 as of this evening.

“I reject vote-buying on or before 2023 election date. I also recently opened a ‪@capitalone US bank account that has in it about $300, I have a ‪@ZenithBank campaign account for the ‪#Sowore2023 Presidential account. I have nothing more besides financial support that I occasionally get from friends and family (if those count as assets).

“I have never operated any offshore account(s) or worked with a tax haven to hide my assets. These are the assets I have in my entire life.”