SERAP Asks Buhari To Show Respect For Judiciary By Enforcing 8 Court Judgments Against FG, Others

About 24 hours after President Muhammadu told Channels Television that he would not interfere with the judiciary in the case involving the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, the Socio-economic Rights and Accountabilty Project (SERAP) has queried his administration’s alleged refusal to obey court judgements awarded in its favor.

In a Facebook post on Thursday, SERAP cited examples of court judgments which signified that the Buhari administration is already contradicting itself by not obeying court verdicts.

SERAP listed the cases as follows:

“1. SERAP v. FGN: Suit No: FHC/CS/964/2016 where Hon Justice Shagari ordered his government to tell Nigerians details of recovered stolen assets to date.

2. SERAP v. Minister of Power Suit No: FHC/L/CS/105/2019 where Hon. Justice Chuka Obiozor ordered his government to publish details of payments of billions of Naira to corrupt electricity contractors who disappeared with public funds without executing any projects since 1999.

“Buhari should show his commitment to judicial independence by immediately directing the AGF to enforce the following judgments:

3. SERAP v. AGF: Suit No: FHC/IKJ/CS/248/2011 where Hon Justice Mohammed Idris ordered his government to prosecute principal officials and lawmakers suspected of padding and stealing N481bn from 2016 budget, and to publish the report on alleged 2016 budget padding.
4. SERAP v FGN: Suit No: FHC/L/CS/1497/2017 where Hon. Justice Oluremi Oguntoyinbo ordered his government to challenge the legality of states’ life pension laws, and to recover pensions collected by ex-governors now serving as ministers and members of the National Assembly.
5. SERAP v FGN: Suit No: FHC/IKJ/CS/248/2011 where Hon. Justice Idris ordered his government to publish details of spending of all recovered stolen funds since 1999 by his government, and those of former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, and Goodluck Jonathan.
6. SERAP vs Federal Government suit number ECW/CCJ/APP/10/2020 where the ECOWAS Court of Justice ordered his government to pay a journalist, Agba Jalingo, N30 million as compensation for ill-treating and torturing him while in detention in Cross River state.
7. SERAP v. Federal Republic of Nigeria & Anor (No. 1) – ECW/CCJ/APP/08/08 where the ECOWAS court held that every Nigerian child is entitled to the right to education and ordered the government to provide education as a matter of rights, and to address corruption in the sector.
8. SERAP v. Federal Republic of Nigeria (No. 2) ECW/CCJ/JUD/18/2012 where the ECOWAS court ordered the government to hold all oil companies operating in the Niger Delta to account for oil pollution and associated human rights violations, and to pay adequate compensation.”

However, while speaking on the activities of the Justice Sector in the year 2021 at NTA’s Good Morning Nigeria program on Monday, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami SAN, had explained that the federal government can still appeal a trial court judgment or file an application for it to be set aside.

But SERAP’s deputy director, Kolawole Oluwadare, told THE WHISTLER on Thursday that the federal government was yet to appealed any of the judgments.

“Out of the eight judgements that SERAP has against the government, none of those cases has been appealed by the FG,” he said.