Court orders Buhari’s minister, Umar-Farouk, to account for N729 billion

A Lagos-based Federal High Court, in a landmark ruling, has ordered Mrs. Sadia Umar-Farouk, former Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development to account for the payment of N729 billion to 24.3 million poor Nigerians over a period of six months.

The court also ordered the former minister to provide a list and details of beneficiaries who received payments, the number of states covered, and payments per state.

The ruling was delivered last month by Justice Deinde Isaac Dipeolu following Freedom of Information claim number: FHC/L/CS/853/2021, filed by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP). A certified copy of the ruling was obtained last Friday.

In his ruling, Justice Dipeolu held that, “The former minister is required by the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act to provide information to anyone including SERAP. I therefore grant a writ of mandamus directing and compelling the minister to provide details of the expenditure of N729 billion to 24.3 million poor Nigerians in 2021.”

Judge Dipeolu ordered the minister to “provide SERAP with details on how beneficiaries were selected and the mechanism for payment to beneficiaries.”

Justice Dipeolu also ordered the minister to “explain the rationale for paying N5,000 to 24.3 million poor Nigerians, which is equivalent to five per cent of Nigeria’s N13.6 trillion budget for 2021.”

Justice Dipeolu also stated that, “The Minister has not given any reason for the refusal to disclose the details requested by SERAP. SERAP has cited the relevant sections of the Freedom of Information Act 2011 which the Minister has contravened and pursuant to sections 20 and 25(1) of the Act has prayed to this Court to issue a writ of mandamus to direct and compel the Minister to provide the requested information.”

Judge Dipeolu dismissed the objections raised by the minister’s attorney and upheld SERAP’s argument. As a result, the court ruled in favor of SERAP in the minister’s case.

Judge Dipeolu’s decision, dated June 27, 2024, reads in part: “where a law clearly prescribes a certain act to be done or carried out in a certain manner, failure to carry out the act as stipulated will not only be construed as a delinquent act but will also be construed as failure to comply with the provisions of the law.

“The Minister filed a preliminary objection to this lawsuit dated 4 October 2022 and a counter-affidavit to the SERAP’s proposed notice. I will first address the Minister’s preliminary objection as it interferes with the jurisdiction of this Court to deal with this lawsuit.

“The reason for filing a preliminary objection is: whether this lawsuit is incompetent because it was not initiated within 30 days since the request for SERAP information was deemed rejected.

“Because it does not comply with the provisions of Article 20 of the Law on Transparency of Information, can this Court take over jurisdiction to hear the SERAP application?

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“As evidence for both issues, the Minister’s legal representative stated that based on the provisions of Article 4, 7 paragraph (4) and 20 of the Law on Public Information Disclosure, taking into account the legitimate exceptions in the Law, a public body has 7 days to grant a request for information, and if the request is not granted, it is considered a rejection.

“SERAP’s application was deemed rejected on July 6, which was the end of the 7-day period. Therefore, SERAP has 30 days in accordance with Article 20 of the Law to file an application with this Court.

“SERAP’s 30-day period to file this lawsuit expired on August 5, 2021, while the notice motion was filed on November 9, 2021, outside the 30-day period set by the Law. As a result, this lawsuit has expired.

“In response to this, SERAP’s attorney argued that this lawsuit was not filed through a notice motion dated November 8, 2021. This lawsuit was filed through an exparte motion dated July 13, 2021, but was filed on July 15, 2021, after the expiration of the 7-day period required for the minister to respond to SERAP’s FOI request.

“This is in accordance with Article 20 of the Freedom of Public Information Act and Article 34 Regulation 3(1) of the Federal High Court (Civil Procedure) Regulations 2019.

“The above are statements from the attorney regarding the minister’s initial objection. I agree with SERAP’s attorney that the minister did not conduct a proper examination of the case files before filing the initial objection.

“It is clear that SERAP initiated this lawsuit through an exparte motion dated July 13, 2021 but filed on July 15, 2021, which is the proper time to file this action after the denial of the requested information from the minister.

“SERAP complies with Article 20 of the Freedom of Information Act in filing this lawsuit. Therefore, this lawsuit is not out of date and I reject the minister’s initial objection. I affirm this.”

SERAP deputy director Kolawole Oluwadare said: “This groundbreaking decision is a victory for transparency and accountability in the spending of public funds.

“Justice Dipeolu’s ruling demonstrates the urgent need for the Tinubu administration to seriously address the systemic allegations of corruption in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development and other ministries, departments and agencies, as documented by the Auditor-General of the Federation.”

Femi Falana, SAN said of the ruling: “SERAP deserves the praise of all well-meaning people who have been concerned about reports of systemic corruption in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development and other Ministries/Agencies.

“This is one of the most patriotic public interest litigations ever conducted in Nigeria. We call on the Tinubu government to use this judgment as a basis to comprehensively address corruption in the ministry and bring to justice those allegedly responsible and recover the proceeds of corruption.”

The lawsuit was filed against the former Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development. The lawsuit follows the minister’s decision in January 2021 to “pay about 24.3 million poor Nigerians N5,000 each for six months to provide relief to those impoverished by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Court orders Buhari minister Umar-Farouk to account for N729 billion first appeared on Latest Nigeria News | Headlines from Ripples Nigeria.