By Chimezie Godfrey<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has filed a lawsuit against the oil producing states in Nigeria over \u201ctheir failure to account for the spending of the oil derivation refunds of N625bn recently paid to them by the Federal Government, including details and locations of projects executed with the money.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Federal Government recently paid N625.43 billion oil derivation refunds to the governors of Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, Rivers, Ondo, Imo and Cross River states. The payments covered 13 percent oil derivation,\u00a0subsidy, and SURE-P refunds.\u00a0The refunds date from 1999 to 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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This is contained in a statement signed by SERAP’s Deputy Director, Kolawoke Oluwadare made available to newsmen on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Oluwadare revealed that in the suit number FHC\/ABJ\/CS\/2371\/2022 filed last Friday at the Federal High Court, Abuja, SERAP is asking the court to \u201cdirect and compel the governors to disclose and widely publish the details\u00a0of spending of the oil derivation refunds, subsidy, and SURE-P refunds.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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According him, SERAP is also asking the court to \u201ccompel President Muhammadu Buhari to direct anti-corruption agencies to thoroughly investigate the spending of the public funds collected by the governors, and where appropriate, ensure the prosecution of suspected perpetrators of corruption, and the recovery of proceeds of corruption.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He stated that in the suit, SERAP is arguing that, \u201cThe\u00a0Nigerian Constitution 1999 [as amended], the Freedom of Information Act, and the African Charter on Human and Peoples\u2019 Rights impose transparency obligations on the governors to disclose the\u00a0spending of\u00a0the oil derivation refunds, subsidy, and SURE-P refunds.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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He stated,”SERAP is also arguing that, \u201cState governors cannot hide under the excuse that the Freedom of Information Act is not applicable to their states. The governors also have clear legal obligations to provide the information, as prescribed by the provisions of the Nigerian Constitution and the African Charter on Human and Peoples\u2019 Rights.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“According to SERAP,\u00a0\u201cIt is in the public interest and the interest of justice to grant this application.\u00a0Nigerians are entitled to their constitutionally and internationally recognized human right to information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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“SERAP is also arguing that, \u201cThe constitutional principle of democracy provides a foundation for Nigerians\u2019 right to know details of spending of public funds. Citizens\u2019 right to know promotes openness, transparency, and accountability that is in turn crucial for the country\u2019s democratic order.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“SERAP is also arguing that,\u00a0\u201cThe public interest in obtaining the information about expenditures relating to the refunds outweighs any other interests. The oversight afforded by public access to such details would serve as an important check on the activities of the governors, and help to prevent abuses of the public trust.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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“The suit filed on behalf of SERAP by its lawyers Kolawole Oluwadare and Ms Valentina Adegoke, read in part: \u201cThe Nigerian Constitution, Freedom of Information Act, and the country\u2019s international obligations rest on the principle that citizens should have access to information regarding their government’s activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDisclosing details of the spending of the oil derivation refunds, subsidy and SURE-P refunds\u00a0would allow Nigerians to scrutinise it, and to monitor the spending of the\u00a0refunds\u00a0to ensure that the money is not mismanaged, diverted or stolen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cThe effective operation of representative democracy depends on the people being able to scrutinise, discuss and contribute to government decision making, including on the spending of the oil derivation refunds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTo do this, they need information to enable them to participate more effectively in the management of public funds by their state governments.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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He added,”Publishing the details of the spending of the refunds would ensure that persons with public responsibilities are answerable to the people for the performance of their duties including the management of refunds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Freedom of Information Act, Section 39 of the Nigerian Constitution, article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples\u2019 Rights and article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights guarantee to everyone the right to information, including about how the oil derivation refunds are spent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cBy the combined reading of the provisions of the Constitution of Nigeria, the Freedom of Information Act 2011, and the African Charter on Human and Peoples\u2019 Rights, applicable throughout Nigeria, there are transparency obligations imposed on the state governors to publish details of spending of the oil derivation refunds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cUnder the 13 per cent derivation fund, Abia State received N4.8bn; Akwa-Ibom received N128bn; and Bayelsa got N92.2bn. Cross River got a refund of N1.3bn; Delta State received N110bn; Edo State received N11.3bn; Imo State, N5.5bn; Ondo State, N19.4bn; and Rivers State received 103.6bn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cOn the 13 per cent derivation fund on deductions made by NNPC, Abia State received N1.1 billion; Akwa-Ibom, N15 billion; Bayelsa, N11.6 billion; Cross River, N432 million; Delta State, N14.8 billion; Edo State, N2.2 billion; and Imo State, N2.9, billion. Ondo State got N3.7 billion while N12.8 billion was paid to Rivers State.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Oluwadare further disclosed that the states also received N4.7 billion each, totalling N42.34 billion as refunds on withdrawals for subsidy and SURE-P from 2009 to 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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“The Federation Account also paid N3.52billion each as refund to local government councils on withdrawals for subsidy and SURE-P from 2009 to 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“No date has been fixed for the hearing of the suit,” he stated.
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By Chimezie Godfrey Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has filed a lawsuit against the oil producing states in Nigeria over \u201ctheir failure to account for the spending of the oil derivation refunds of N625bn recently paid to them by the Federal Government, including details and locations of projects executed with the money.\u201d The Federal Government<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1,46,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis","category-context","category-public-finance-economy"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/modusoperandum.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/SERAP-1.jpg?fit=727%2C465&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/modusoperandum.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/modusoperandum.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/modusoperandum.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modusoperandum.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modusoperandum.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7738"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/modusoperandum.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7739,"href":"https:\/\/modusoperandum.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7738\/revisions\/7739"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modusoperandum.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/modusoperandum.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modusoperandum.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modusoperandum.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}