The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project has obliged the Federal High Court in Lagos to compel the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to offer explanation on the N30tn, which allegedly got missing under her watch.
The suit marked FHC/L/CS/196/2015 came after the minister allegedly failed the organisation’s request with information as regards the allegedly missing money pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act.
Okonjo-Iweala had come under the spotlight following an allegation by the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Chukwuma Soludo, that not less than N30tn had either been missing, stolen, unaccounted for, or simply mismanaged under her watch as the Minister of Finance.
SERAP, in the suit filed through its Senior Staff Attorney, Olukayode Majekodunmi, insisted that Okonjo-Iweala, as a trustee of public fund, was duty-bound in law to render an account of the controversial N30tn to Nigerians whenever she was called upon to do so.
The group noted that the Minister of Finance, as a key functionary in government, had a sacred duty to ensure that the country’s resources and wealth were used solely to fulfil the basic economic and social rights of all Nigerians and to achieve the country’s overall socio-economic development.
SERAP said the information it demanded bordered on “an issue of national interest, public peace and security, public concern, social justice, good governance, transparency and accountability".
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