The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, BudgIT, Enough is Enough and 583 concerned Nigerians have filed a lawsuit asking the Federal High Court, Abuja to “restrain and stop President Muhammadu Buhari and Mrs Zainab Ahmed, Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning from releasing N37 billion allocated for the renovation of the National Assembly complex to the Federal Capital Development Agency and the National Assembly until an impact assessment of the spending is carried out.”
Browsing: SERAP
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project has welcomed the announcement by the government of President Muhammadu Buhari ordering the release of #RevolutionNow protest convener, Omoyele Sowore, and the immediate past National Security Adviser, Colonel Sambo Dasuki (retd), from custody.
There is prospect Nigerians keen on knowing details of spending of the $460 million loan obtained in 2010 from China to fund the apparently failed Abuja Closed-Circuit Television project, the names of contractors who collected money
The rights group made the claim on Wednesday during the launch of a 68-page Survey Report titled: “Nigeria: Anti-Corruption Social Norms Report”.
The organization is also urging each of the 36 state governors to “provide information on whether any such pension law exists in your state, and if so, to provide the names and number of ex-governors and other ex-officials receiving pensions in your state, and to publicly commit to repealing the law, and to pursue recovery of funds collected under the pension law.”
Armed operatives of the Department of State Services stormed the courtroom, causing pandemonium and physically assaulting Sowore.
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project and some other civil society groups on Thursday lauded the 12-year prison sentence handed down to ex-Governor Orji Kalu of Abia, by a Federal High Court in Lagos.
A certified true copy of the judgment delivered last week was obtained on Wednesday.
A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Tuesday granted leave to the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project in a suit against President Muhammadu Buhari, Senate President Ahmed Lawan, and Speaker of the House of Representatives Femi Gbajabiamila “over the failure to disclose details of allocations, disbursement and spending of an estimated N241.2 billion yearly as security votes between 1999 and 2019.”
This development was disclosed on Tuesday by SERAP’s Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare.
In a statement on Tuesday by SERAP’s Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, the organization said: “We have seen a video footage apparently showing the use of lethal and excessive force by Nigerian security agents against peaceful protesters demanding the release of Sowore and Bakare as ordered by the court.
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project has sent an open letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Most Rev. Justin Portal Welby, urging him to use his good offices and leadership and his “friendship with President Muhammadu Buhari to prevail on him to obey court orders most recently involving activists Omoyele Sowore and Olawale Bakare who remain in arbitrary detention despite a court order for their release.”
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project has sent an open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari urging him to “direct the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Mr Abubakar Malami, SAN, and/or appropriate anti-corruption agencies to urgently investigate corruption allegations in the use of the monthly federal allocations to the 774 local governments in the country through the 36 state governors and the Federal Capital Territory.”
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project has sent an open letter to US President Donald Trump asking him to exercise his constitutional powers “pursuant to the Presidential Proclamations 7750 and 8697 to instruct the US Secretary of State and US Ambassador in Nigeria to temporarily ban Nigerian state governors and other senior public officials misusing the criminal justice system to jail journalists, bloggers and activists reporting on allegations of corruption from entering the US.”
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project has sent a Freedom of Information request to Zainab Ahmed, Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, asking her to “urgently provide information on the total amount of money paid to contractors from the $460 million loan obtained in 2010 from China to fund the apparently failed Abuja Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) contract, the loan which the Federal Government has continued to re-pay.”
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project has sent an open letter to Abdullahi Adamu Candido, the Chairman of the Abuja Municipal Area Council, urging him to use his good offices and leadership position to “urgently withdraw and revoke the bill/edict for the unconstitutional and illegal payment of life pensions to former chairmen, vice-chairmen, speakers and other officials of AMAC.”
SERAP said: “Across the country, state governors and federal government are charging citizens, mostly journalists, bloggers and activists, with serious crimes such as ‘treason’, ‘treasonable felony’ or bogus crime of ‘insulting public officials’, simply for exercising their human rights.”
Justice Muslim Sule Hassan of the Federal High Court in Ikoyi, Lagos on Wednesday ruled: “Going through the Application filed by SERAP, supported by a 14-paragraph affidavit, with supporting exhibits, statements setting out the facts, verifying affidavits and written address in support, I am satisfied that leave ought to be granted in this case, and I hereby grant the motion for leave.”
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project has sent an open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari urging him to use his good offices and leadership position to “urgently publish and fully implement the recommendations of the report on financial autonomy of state legislature and judiciary submitted to you in June 2019.”
In a statement on Tuesday, SERAP’s Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, said: “It’s a huge relief that Sowore will be freed and can finally return to his family and journalism work.