There are indications that politicians in the country have begun to lobby the Code of Conduct Bureau in a bid to amend some of the information in the asset declaration forms that they had earlier submitted.
Saturday PUNCH learnt that the development is because of fear of arrest as this is coming in the light of the ongoing trial of Senate President Bukola Saraki at the Code of Conduct Tribunal over alleged false declaration of assets.
Investigation by Saturday PUNCH showed that state CCB offices have become busier following Saraki’s ordeal at the CCT, but sources told our correspondents that it was too late for politicians to change the information they had earlier given to the bureau.
For instance, sources in the CCB office in Delta State disclosed that some politicians, including senators and members of the House of Representatives, have been lobbying officials of the bureau to grant them permission to amend the asset declaration forms they had submitted.
According to the source, politicians in the state had until now taken the exercise for granted, believing that they could never be prosecuted over it.
The source said that President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption stance and the trial of Saraki at the CCT seemed to have jolted the politicians.
Confirming that politicians have begun lobbying CCB officials, the source, who did not want to be named, added that officials of the bureau have recently had to take their security more seriously as a result of the fresh attention drawn to it by Saraki’s prosecution.