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Jonathan, who urged the AC to call Mohammed to order, said he had on several occasions publicly declared his assets, although he did not publish same.
In a statement in Abuja on Monday, Mohammed had said: "It is not an issue of law or legality but that of morality and transparency for the VP to toe the path of honour and make his assets declaration public...
"Declaring assets five times means nothing as long as no one knows what the VP has declared.
For example, it will be very interesting to know how the VP's asset declaration has changed between the time he served as Deputy Governor and Governor of the oil-rich state of Bayelsa."
But in a statement on Tuesday by Mr. Ima Niboro, his Senior Special Assistant (Media and Communications), the Vice President said:"Ordinarily, we would not want to join issues with the AC, or any other political party for that matter, especially in the face of efforts by the present administration to achieve genuine reconciliation across political divides.
It however, behoves on us to set the records straight, and bring a measure of illumination to the issues at stake before they are completely beclouded by partisanship.
"For the avoidance of doubt, the Vice President has publicly declared his assets a total of seven times; four times as a deputy governor, twice as a governor, and once again before taking oath of office as Vice President. What the Vice President has not done is to publish his declaration, which he insists is not contrary to the law and is securely on the moral high ground!
"AC's Lai Mohammed was once Chief of Staff of Lagos State, and as a public servant must have declared his assets before the Code of Conduct Bureau. Did he proceed to publish his assets declaration? Since he belongs to the strange school that reads potential corruption into a man's choice of circumspection about his affairs, we challenge him to publish his own asset declaration to prove that he is not himself corrupt!
"A question for Lai Mohammed: Does he also insist that his former principal and leading members of the AC who spent the last eight years in government publish their asset declaration? ...You must first take out the log from your own eyes before you take the speck out of your brother's eyes!"
According to Niboro, the Vice President has nothing to hide.
He went on: "We also insist if there were inexplicable and amazing gains in the Vice President's assets portfolio in the last eight years, it would have been quite difficult, if not impossible, to have been nominated as running mate to President Yar'Adua.
We maintain that the Vice President has fulfilled all requirements of the law by declaring his assets before the Code of Conduct Bureau. And we remind that it is a democracy after all, and the Vice President has rights too!
"It is interesting to note that even without publishing the particulars of his declaration, complete with street names and numbers, persons claiming to be militants were able to identify and bomb the Vice President's country home.
"We note the laughable attempt to twist beyond all recognition, aspects of the Vice President's comments in Yenagoa, especially where he had noted that because of the nature of government, it is not very easy to know the exact assets and liabilities of a state or country at any particular time. He had added, as a humorous aside: 'Why do we emphasise things like this in our country.
Did any one ever hear Bill Clinton declare how much cash he left in the treasury for George W. Bush? Don't they also practice the presidential system? Also, even at the federal level, did you hear Obasanjo declaring to the public that he left so and so much in the treasury?"
"We understand the mindset that makes the Lai Mohammeds of this world conveniently ignore positive comments like those of Gov. Timipre Sylva's during the same occasion, commending the Vice President for leaving behind an investment portfolio in excess of N20 billion in securities alone. In the determined pursuit of negativism, good news is definitely bad news!
"We are hard pressed to believe that Lai Mohammed spoke the mind of the leadership of Action Congress in that unfortunate statement of his. We doubt that other members of the party agree, even if it is just this once, with their spokesman. They should call him to order!"
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