CCB officials embarrassed by mysterious disappearance of Tinubu's asset declaration form

ALL Progressives Congress (APC) national leader Asiwaju Bola Tinubu's corruption case with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has taken a fresh twist after files on his case went missing from the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) offices.

Earlier this month, in what is seen as an attempt to checkmate Asiwaju Tinubu's presidential ambition, this morning the EFCC write to the CCB asking for his asset declaration form when he was Lagos State governor. Asiwaju Tinubu was Lagos State governor between 1999 and 2007 and was one of the main forces behind the founding of the APC which was created in 2014 following the merger of his party the Action Congress of Nigeria, the All Nigeria  Peoples Party and President Muhammadu Buhari's Congress for Progressives Change.

With the 2023 presidential elections looming, Asiwaju Tinubu's supporters have already begun campaigning for him aggressively and the probe into his affairs has heightened the political tension, with attorney-general Abubakar Malami accused of trying to truncate his ambitions. Apparently, way back in November, the EFCC asked the CCB to supply it with details of Asiwaju Tinubu’s asset declaration documents when he was governor at Mr Malami's request.

In a dramatic twist to the political soap opera, Asiwaju Tinubu's file has gone missing from the CCB strong room that has held them for years. Several offices have been rummaged at the bureau as officials scrambled to produce the documents for EFCC’s use but nothing has been found.

Once CCB official said: “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 added that the matter had become terribly embarrassing and a cause for unending worry at the bureau. Nigeria's CCB  is the primary anti-corruption agency in charge of collecting and keep assets of schedule government officials before and after assumption of office.

He added: “We cannot find the asset documents at all. We cannot even find photocopies that we can certify for the EFCC.”

In 2011, anti-graft agencies had investigated and charged Asiwaju Tinubu but the CCB tribunal dismissed the matter on technical grounds, leaving the merit of the case floating for nearly a decade. No further charges had been preferred against him ever since.