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

SERAP
January 24, 2023

They are the candidates of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu; Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar; Labour Party, Peter Obi and New Nigeria Peoples Party, Rabiu Kwankwaso.

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), has again asked some presidential candidates for the 2023 election to publish their assets before the poll.

They are the candidates of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu; Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar; Labour Party, Peter Obi and New Nigeria Peoples Party, Rabiu Kwankwaso.

The civic organisation made this request on Tuesday evening via Twitter, explaining that publishing of assets by the candidates will combat vote-buying during the election.

“BREAKING: We're again calling on Atiku, Obi, Tinubu and Kwankwaso to widely publish their assets to show Nigerians that it will be no business as usual, and to publicly reject vote buying ahead of the elections. “@atiku @PeterObi @officialABAT @KwankwasoRM,” SERAP tweeted.

In January, SaharaReporters reported that SERAP in a statement published via its official Twitter handle urged the same candidates, Tinubu, Atiku, Obi and Kwankwaso 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 had said.

Meanwhile, the presidential candidate of the AAC, Omoyele Sowore is the only presidential candidate in the next election that has declared his assets publicly.

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.

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 had 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.”