Nigeria {Lagos} - 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.”
The court had yet to fix a date for the hearing of the suit.
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