Rights advocacy group, Socio-Economic Rights and
Accountability Project (SERAP), has urged a Federal High Court in Lagos to
compel the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, to furnish
it with the names of suspected looters who had returned stolen funds.
The Federal Government had, through the Ministry of
Information and Culture, recently disclosed that it had recovered cash sums of
N78,325,354,631.82, $185,119,584.61, £3,508,355.46 and €11, 250, among others,
between May 29, 2015 and May 25, 2016.
SERAP said it resorted to suing Mohammed following the
minister’s failure to oblige its request to publish the names of the looters
and the circumstances under which they returned the loot.
Joined as a defendant in the suit is the Attorney-General of the Federation and
the Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN).
The group said it was entitled to be supplied with the
information by virtue of Section 4(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2011.
It claimed that by releasing the names of the looters,
the Federal Government had nothing to lose.
It is urging the court to determine whether by virtue of
Section 4(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2011, Mohammed and Malami were
not under an obligation to publish the looters’ names as it had requested.
“By virtue of Section 1(1) of the FOI Act 2011, the
plaintiff is entitled, as of right, to request for or gain access to
information which is in the custody or possession of any public official,
agency or institution.
“Under the FOI, when a person makes a request for
information from a public official, institution or agency, the public official,
institution or agency to whom the application is made is under a binding legal
obligation to provide the applicant with the information requested for, except
as otherwise provided by the Act, within seven days after the application is
received,” the group contended.
SERAP said publishing the looters’ names would provide an
insight into the debate on the ongoing ant-corruption fight and how looters had
been evading punishment.
It added, “While the suspects generally are entitled to
be presumed innocent until proven guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction,
the FOI Act implicitly prohibits blanket non-disclosure of names of
high-ranking public officials from whom some of the funds were recovered.
“SERAP believes that the right to truth allows Nigerians
to gain access to information essential to the fight against corruption and in
turn development of democratic institutions as well as provides a form of
reparation to victims of grand corruption in the country.”punchng.com
No comments:
Post a Comment