Udora Orizu in Abuja
Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has filed a lawsuit against the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, and Speaker of House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, over their failure to probe and to refer to appropriate anti-corruption agencies fresh allegations that N4.1billion of public money budgeted for the National Assembly is missing, misappropriated or stolen.
SERAP had last year sent a letter to Lawan and Gbajabiamila requesting them to urgently probe the allegations.
The suit followed the publication of the annual audited report for 2016 in which the Auditor-General of the Federation raised concerns about alleged diversion and misappropriation of public funds, and sought the recovery of any missing funds.
In the suit number FHC/ABJ/CS/1609/2021 filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja, SERAP is seeking an order of mandamus to direct and compel Lawan and Gbajabiamila to perform their constitutional oversight functions to promptly probe the allegations.
SERAP is arguing that the National Assembly has constitutional duties to prevent and combat corruption, as well as promote transparency and accountability in the management of public resources.
According to SERAP, the National Assembly has no legally justifiable reason to refuse to investigate the allegations documented by the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation.
The suit filed on behalf of SERAP by its lawyers, Kolawole Oluwadare and Kehinde Oyewumi, read in part: “Granting this application would serve the interest of justice, reduce corruption and mismanagement, as well as end impunity of perpetrators, and advance the fundamental human rights of Nigerians.
This suit seeks to vindicate the rule of law, the public interest, and to promote transparency and accountability. Government agencies and institutions are responsible to a court of justice for the lawfulness of what they do, and of that, the court is the only Judge.
“These fresh allegations are not part of the disclosure by the Auditor-General in the audited reports for 2015, 2017 and 2018 that N4.4 billion of National Assembly money is missing, misappropriated or stolen. According to the Auditor-General report for 2016, N4,144, 706, 602.68 of National Assembly money is missing, diverted or stolen. The National Assembly paid some contractors N417, 312,538.79 without any documents. The Auditor-General wants the Clerk of the National Assembly to ‘recover the amount in question from the contractors’. The National Assembly reportedly spent N625, 000, 000.00 through its Constitution Review Committee between March and June 2016 but without any document.
“The Auditor-General wants the Clerk of to the National Assembly to ‘recover the amount from the Committee’. The National Assembly also reportedly spent N66, 713, 355.08 as ‘personnel cost’ but ‘the payees in the Cashbook did not correspond with those in the bank statement’. The Auditor-General wants the irregular expenditure recovered from the officer who approved the payments.”
No date has been fixed for the hearing of the suit.
