The position of the human rights organisation was contained in a letter dated May 13, 2023 to the World Bank
Browsing: Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, threw the challenge on Wednesday.
SERAP made the demand in a petition dated September 4, 2021, signed by its Deputy Director Kolawole Oluwadare,
According to reports, the Acting Director General of the NBC, Prof. Armstrong Idachaba, in a letter to the Managing Director of Channels Television referred to Channels 7pm live broadcast programme of April 25, 2021, in which it accused the TV station of interviewing a leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra allegedly without “caution or reprimand.”
The co-plaintiffs in the suit are 255 concerned Nigerians; Premium Times Services Limited; Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development; HEDA Resource Centre; International Centre for Investigative Reporting; African Centre for Media and Information Literacy; and Media Rights Agenda.
The acting Director-General of the NBC, Prof. Armstrong Idachaba, announced at a press conference in Abuja on Monday that the agency has fined Channels Television, Arise Television and Africa Independent Television for what it termed “unprofessional coverage” of the #EndSARS protests.
SERAP urged Bensouda to “push for those suspected to be responsible for these crimes, mostly security officials, soldiers, some politicians and other actors who directly or indirectly have individually and/or collectively contributed to the attacks, deaths and injuries, and are therefore complicit in the crimes, to be tried by the ICC.”
Kolawole Oluwadare, SERAP’s Deputy Director, said this in a statement on Tuesday.
The Department of State Services on Wednesday reportedly arrested Olawale Bakare and six other #RevolutionNow protesters wearing orange-coloured caps around Olaiya area of Osogbo, the Osun State capital
The suit followed SERAP’s Freedom of Information requests dated March 27, 2020 to the Minister of Health and the NCDC expressing “concern that lack of transparency in the use of the funds and resources to combat COVID-19 would lead to diversion or mismanagement of funds and resources, unnecessarily cost lives, and result in serious damage to public health in the country.”
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disasters Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar-Farouk, had on Wednesday announced that the government would start feeding school children in their homes during the COVID-19 crisis, starting from Ogun and Lagos States and Abuja
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project has asked the Federal Government and Central Bank of Nigeria to “provide spending details of public funds and private sector donations to provide socio-economic benefits to the country’s poorest and most vulnerable people, including details of beneficiaries of any cash payments, cash transfers, food distribution and other benefits during the lockdown in Abuja; Lagos and Ogun states because of COVID-19.”
The letter follows the judgment last year ordering the government to challenge the legality of states’ pension laws and recover public funds collected by former governors and ministers
SERAP wrote the letter to Sanwo-Olu on Tuesday following the ruling on Monday by Justice Raliat Adebiyi of the Lagos High Court that demanding compulsory blood donation from those seeking medical attention, including maternity services, is arbitrary, unfair and a violation of their human rights, including the rights to life and to equal opportunity for everyone within the health system
Responding to the development, SERAP’s Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, said: “Providing immunity for presiding officers against crimes of corruption is tantamount to ripping up the constitution. It’s a blatant assault on the rule of law and breach of public trust.”
SERAP is also seeking: “A declaration that the failure of President Buhari, Vice-President Osinbajo, 36 state governors and their deputies to provide SERAP with the requested information on their assets constitutes a breach of SERAP’s right under the FoI Act, 2011, and such further order(s) the Honourable Court may deem fit to make in the circumstances”
In the suit number FHC/ABJ/CS/1447/2019 filed last week at the Federal High Court, Abuja, SERAP is seeking “an order for leave to apply for judicial review and an order of mandamus to direct and/or compel the Minister of Finance to disclose the details of local companies and Chinese contractors that have received funds from the $460 million loan for the finance of the failed Abuja CCTV project as well as details of the status of implementation of the project.”
In the petition dated November 22, 2019 and signed by SERAP’s Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, the organization said: “The harassment of detained activists for demanding strict compliance with court orders, and then their sureties as well as lawyers who come to their defence, shows a steady slide away from the rule of law and underscores the urgent need for the Commission to insist on the restoration of respect for human rights in Nigeria.”
Justice Obiozor, a Professor of Law, sitting at the Federal High Court, Lagos, had in July delivered a judgment in a Freedom of Information suit number FHC/L/CS/105/19, brought by SERAP, ordering the Federal Government to disclose and publish the names of companies and the whereabouts of the contractors paid by successive governments to carry out electricity projects but disappeared with the money without executing any projects
The 6,721 concerned Nigerians who joined the suit as co-plaintiffs with SERAP, BudgIT and EiE include: Bring Back Our Girls co-conveners, Oby Ezekwesili and Aisha Yesufu; Jibrin Ibrahim; Edetaen Ojo; Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi; and Deji Adeyanju