SERAP on Tuesday announced that Justice Tijjani Ringim of the Federal High Court, Lagos granted it the leave to pursue the suit.
A Federal High Court in Lagos has granted the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project leave to pursue its suit seeking to compel President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to probe allegations of missing funds in the finance ministry.
SERAP on Tuesday announced that Justice Tijjani Ringim of the Federal High Court, Lagos granted it the leave to pursue the suit.
“Hon. Justice Ringim of the Federal High Court, Lagos today granted SERAP the leave to pursue our suit seeking to compel the Buhari administration to probe allegations that over N3 billion of public funds are missing from the Federal Ministry of Finance,” SERAP tweeted on Tuesday.
The organisation had asked Buhari’s administration to probe allegations that public funds amounting to over N3 billion are missing from the Federal Ministry of Finance.
The lawsuit followed the Auditor-General of the Federation’s 2018 and 2019 reports.
The group said the Nigerian leader failed to ensure the prosecution of those suspected to be responsible.
In January 2022, SaharaReporters reported that the suit was filed at the Federal High Court in Lagos with the number FHC/L/CS/148/22.
According to SERAP, being unable to account for the funds breaches the country’s anti-corruption laws and international obligations including under the United Nations Convention.
Abubakar Malami, Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation and Zainab Ahmed, Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning are the respondents in the suit.
Kolawole Oluwadare and Adelanke Aremo, SERAP's lawyers had noted that the authorities must take appropriate measures to promote transparency and accountability in the management of public funds.
The organisation accused the finance ministry of spending N24,708,090 on pre-retirement training without any document, citing the Auditor-General’s report for 2018.
The consultant hired allegedly failed to quote any price as the cost of the training but the ministry paid him N5,670,060.
The request for payment was dated January 20, 2017, while the first payment voucher in his favour was dated January 13, 2017 (seven days before the request).
According to the report, the ministry allegedly failed to account for N2,885,772,493 released from the Service Wide Vote for estacodes and other allowances for meetings and contributions to the Organisation for Petroleum Exporting Countries.
The ministry allegedly awarded a contract on May 17, 2017, for N98,540,500 without any document, contrary to the Public Procurement Act.
The organisation noted that the project was not also budgeted for.
The ministry was also accused of deducting N9,354,809 as Withholding Tax and Value Added Tax without any evidence of remittance.
“The ministry also reportedly spent N98,759,299.20 between January and December 2017 without any document, contrary to Financial Regulation 601.
“According to the 2019 report of the Auditor-General, the ministry paid N20,466,744.00 as cash advances to ‘You-Win’ staff between 8 February and 18 December 2018 but the ministry has failed to retire the money,” the report said.