Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has filed a lawsuit against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu over “the failure to probe the allegations that USD$2.1 billion and N3.1 trillion public funds of oil revenues and budgeted as fuel subsidy payments, are missing and unaccounted for between 2016 and 2019.”
In the suit number FHC/L/CS/1107/23 filed on Friday June 9 at the Federal High Court in Lagos, SERAP is seeking: “an order of mandamus to direct and compel President Tinubu to promptly probe allegations that USD$2.1 billion and N3.1 trillion public funds are missing and unaccounted for between 2016 and 2019.”
SERAP is also seeking: “an order of mandamus to compel President Tinubu to direct the anti-corruption agencies to promptly probe fuel subsidy payments made by governments since the return of democracy in 1999, name and shame and prosecute suspected perpetrators, and to recover any proceeds of crimes.”
SERAP is also seeking: “an order of mandamus to direct and compel President Tinubu to use any recovered proceeds of crime as palliatives to address the impact of the subsidy removal on poor Nigerians, and to put in place mechanisms for transparency and accountability in the oil sector.”
In the suit, SERAP is arguing that: “The allegations that US$2.1 billion and N3.1 trillion of public funds are missing and unaccounted for amount to a fundamental breach of national anti-corruption laws and the country’s international obligations including under the UN Convention against Corruption to which Nigeria is a State party.”
SERAP is also arguing that, “The Tinubu government has constitutional and international legal obligations to get to the bottom of these allegations and ensure accountability for these serious crimes against the Nigerian people.”
According to SERAP, “Directing and compelling President Tinubu to promptly probe, name and shame and bring to justice the perpetrators and to recover any missing public funds would advance the right of Nigerians to restitution, compensation and guarantee of non-repetition.”
The suit filed on behalf of SERAP by its lawyers, Kolawole Oluwadare, Ms Adelanke Aremo, Ms Valentina Adegoke, and Ayomide Johnson, read in part: “There will be no economic growth or sustainability without accountability for the human rights crimes.”
According to the report, “Subsidy records show that N443,940,559,974.80 was paid as total subsidy for 2016 but the money was not budgeted for. The payments were for outstanding Petroleum Support Fund (PSF) commitments for year 2015. However, there was no payment in 2016. Only outstanding payments for previous years 2014 and 2015 and interest payments were made in 2016.”
The suit followed the allegations documented by the Auditor-General of the Federation in the 2016 and 2019 annual reports that public funds are missing. The Auditor-General is concerned that the oil marketers that received the subsidy payments may not have been ‘eligible to draw from the Petroleum Support Fund as the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Authority (PPPRA), failed to provide any document on the payments.”
No date has been fixed for the hearing of the suit.
More Stories
I once pleaded with an ex President to sign executive bill against unexplained wealth but he refused, says Ndume
Lion devours handler at Obasanjo library zoo
Five church members dead after dining in a ‘Love Feast’