SERAP Drags Governors, Wike to Court over Missing N40 Trillion LGA Funds
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has sued the 36 state governors and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mr Nyesom Wike, over their alleged failure to account for the whopping N40 trillion federal allocations meant for the local government areas (LGAs) in the states and the FCT.
The suit, which was filed at the Federal High Court, Abuja, last Friday, followed the shocking revelations by former president Muhammadu Buhari, who in December 2022, accused the state governors of diverting half of the LGA funds to their personal pockets.
SERAP is seeking an order of the court to compel the governors and Mr Wike to publish the details of the LGA allocations and how they were disbursed to the LGAs in their respective states and the FCT from 1999 to date.
SERAP is also asking the court to declare that the governors and Mr Wike have violated the Nigerian Constitution, the Freedom of Information Act, and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights by failing to disclose the information sought by the group.
SERAP, in its suit, argued that the governors and Mr Wike have a legal duty to promote transparency and accountability in the spending of the LGA funds and to ensure that the funds are fully and duly disbursed to the LGAs.
SERAP said that the opacity in the disbursement of the LGA funds has continued to have negative impacts on the fundamental interests of the citizens, especially the poor and vulnerable.
SERAP said that despite the country’s enormous oil wealth, ordinary Nigerians have derived very little benefit from oil money primarily because of widespread grand corruption and the culture of impunity of perpetrators.
SERAP said that combating the corruption epidemic in the spending of the LGA funds would alleviate poverty, improve access of Nigerians to basic public goods, and enhance the ability of the LGAs to effectively and efficiently discharge their constitutional and statutory responsibilities.
SERAP said that according to its information, the 36 states in Nigeria and the FCT have collected over N40 trillion federal allocations meant for the 774 LGAs in the country and the FCT.
SERAP said that the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) disbursed to states N225.21 billion federal allocations meant for LGAs in November 2023 alone. States also collected N258,810,449,711.47 federal allocations meant for LGAs in December 2023.
SERAP said that however, there is opacity in the actual disbursement of the federal allocations to the LGAs in the states and the FCT. States and the FCT have over the years failed and/or refused to disclose the portion of the federal allocations that are disbursed to the LGAs.
SERAP said that the suit was filed on its behalf by its lawyers Kolawole Oluwadare, Kehinde Oyewumi and Andrew Nwankwo.
