Tinubu’s Govt Ordered To Disclose How Obasanjo, Yar’Adua, Others Spent $5bn Abacha Loot

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, in a landmark judgment, has ordered the government of President Bola Tinubu to disclose the spending details of about $5 billion Abacha loot by the governments of former presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari.

The court ordered Tinubu’s government to disclose the exact amount of money stolen by General Sani Abacha from Nigeria, and the total amount of Abacha loot recovered and all agreements signed on same by the governments of Obasanjo, Yar’Adua, Jonathan and Buhari.

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Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) disclosed this in a statement made available to THE WHISTLER on Sunday in Lagos.

According to SERAP, the judgment was delivered last week by Justice James Kolawole Omotosho following a Freedom of Information suit number: FHC/ABJ/CS/407/2020, brought by the organisation.

In his judgment, Justice Omotosho held that, in the final analysis, the application by SERAP was meritorious and ordered the Federal Government through the Ministry of Finance to furnish the organisation with the full spending details of the said $5bn Abacha loot within 7 days of the judgment.

Justice Omotosho also ordered the government to disclose details of the projects executed with the Abacha loot, locations of any such projects and the names of companies and contractors that carried or carrying out the projects since the return of democracy in 1999 till date.

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Justice Omotosho further ordered the government to disclose details of specific roles played by the World Bank and other partners in the execution of any projects funded with Abacha loot under the governments of the four past presidents.

Justice Omotosho dismissed all the objections raised by the Federal Government and upheld SERAP’s arguments.

Justice Omotosho’s judgment, dated July 3, 2023, read in part: “The failure of the Minister of Finance to write to SERAP informing it of where the said information exists or to transfer the request to public office who has custody of such information is fatal to their case under section 5 of the Freedom of Information Act.”

“The Ministry cannot use a blanket statement that it was not in possession of the said records of about $5bn Abacha loot sought by SERAP. The government failed to provide details of the projects executed with the money. It also failed to provide locations of the projects and the names of the companies and contractors that carried out or are carrying out the projects funded with the money.”

“I hold that by the clear wordings of section 7 of the Freedom of Information Act, 2011, access to information about spending details of $5bn Abacha loot was denied SERAP by the Federal Government.”

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“The Federal Government had filed a 14 paragraph Counter Affidavit deposed to by Abah Sunday, Litigation Officer in the office of the Attorney General of the Federation argued that SERAP’s suit is frivolous, as it has not shown that the government denied it the information it seeks.”

“The Federal Government has also stated that SERAP has not established sufficient interest in its application. The government urged the Court to dismiss the suit.”

“For the sake of emphasis, possession of locus standi has been the bane of the citizens’ advocates, in the public interest litigation, to query transparency and accountability in governance in Nigeria.”

“In a democratic dispensation, such as in Nigeria, the citizens have been proclaimed the owners of sovereignty and mandates that place leaders in the saddle.”

“The requirement is a serious fracture of the citizens’ inalienable right to ventilate their grievances against poor governance vis-à-vis expenditure of public funds generated from their taxes.”

In a letter dated July 8, 2023 sent to Tinubu on the judgment, and signed by SERAP Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, the organization urged him to demonstrate expressed commitment to the rule of law by obeying the judgment of the Court.

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