The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has sued Nigeria’s 36 governors and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Nyesom Wike.
They were sued for failing “to account for the spending of trillions of Federation Account Allocation Committee allocations collected by their states and the FCT since 1999″.
This was contained in a release on Sunday by SERAP’s Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare.
The release said the lawsuit followed reports that the FAAC disbursed N1.123 trillion to federal, state, and local governments for March 2024. They shared N1.208 trillion in April. States collected N398.689 billion in March while they collected N403.403 billion in April.
In the suit numbered FHC/ABJ/CS/666/2024 filed last Friday at the Federal High Court, Abuja, SERAP asked the court to “direct and compel the governors and Wike to publish spending details of the FAAC allocations collected by their states and the FCT since 1999 including the list and locations of projects executed with the money.”
The organisation also asked the court to “compel the governors and Mr Wike to invite the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission to probe any allegations of corruption linked to the allocations and to monitor how the money is spent”.
It argued that, “Nigerians ought to know in what manner public funds including FAAC allocations, are spent by the governors and FCT minister.”
“Opacity in the spending of the FAAC allocations collected by the governors and Mr Wike would continue to have negative impacts on the fundamental interests of the citizens,” SERAP said.
It noted that trillions of FAAC allocations received by Nigeria’s 36 states and the FCT have allegedly gone down the drain.
It believes that, “Directing and compelling the governors and FCT minister to provide the information sought and widely publish the spending details of the FAAC allocations collected by them would serve legitimate public interests.”
