The Special Presidential Investigative Panel on the Recovery of Public Property has decried the non-declaration of assets by some prominent Nigerians.

The Director Operations of the panel, Mr Tahir Usman, made this known while addressing journalists on the activities of the panel on Wednesday in Abuja.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the panel was set up by the present administration in 2017, to investigate persons involved in corrupt practices.

Usman disclosed that those presently before the panel include; the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, Senators Albert Akpan, Peter Nwaboshi and Hope Uzodinma.

He said that that the public officers could not justify the acquisition of some of their assets.

The director said that the public officers who failed to declare their assets, normally, when they were invited, the law said the person should be given an asset declaration form.

“The person is given 30 days to fill and submit such forms.

“If they fail to fill the form within the period, we charge them to court for non-declaration.

“On the other hand, when they fill the form and we cross-check with Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) and find that the assets we are investigating have not been declared in their assets declaration form with the CCB, we will charge them also for non-declaration of those particular assets.

“We now have to inform the court of the existence of these assets belonging to these public officers and with time, seek confiscation and return them to the Federal Government.” he said.

He noted that some agencies had written to the panel to help them in getting back some of their property taken by public officers.

According to Usman, they include Nigerian Inland Waterways Authority, (NIWA), Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) and NEXIM Bank.

“We are on course in recovering those assets.”