October 01, (THEWILL) – The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has dragged the 36 state governors before a Federal High Court in Lagos, over “their failure to account for the spending of the N72 billion palliative collected from the Federal Government, including details of the beneficiaries and the reliefs provided with the money.”
Recently, the Federal Government disbursed N2 billion out of the N5 billion palliative package to each State of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to address the impact of the removal of fuel subsidy.
In a statement on Sunday, SERAP’s Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, explained that the suit number FHC/L/CS/1943/2023 filed last Friday at the Federal High Court in Lagos, is seeking: “an order of mandamus to direct and compel each of the 36 state governors to account for the spending of the N2 billion palliative collected by the governors from the Federal Government.
“An order of mandamus to direct and compel each of the 36 state governors to disclose details of the beneficiaries and the reliefs provided to the poorest and most vulnerable Nigerians with the money.
“An order of mandamus to direct and compel each of the 36 state governors to instruct the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to monitor the spending of fuel subsidy palliative collected by them.”
According to SERAP, “Government secrecy is fundamentally anti-democratic. Secrecy in the spending of the N72 billion collected by the 36 state governors would create distrust or suspicion of the government. The failure of the Governors to account for the public funds is both legally and morally wrong.
“The 36 state governors are constitutionally required to act in the public interest. Secrecy in government is a form of coercion. Government secrecy promotes arbitrariness and covers illegal acts.”
No date has been fixed for the hearing of the suit.
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