Attorney
General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami
The Federal
Government has said it would publish the names of high-ranking public
officials from whom it recovered stolen public funds
.
The Federal
High Court on Wednesday ordered the government to publish the
names.
Minister of
Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, told State
House correspondents, on Thursday, that the government is in agreement with the
ruling and will carry out the order.
Justice
Hadiza Shagari gave the order while delivering judgment in a suit filed against
the Federal Government by a human rights advocacy group, Socio-Economic
Rights and Accountability Project.
The Federal
Government had last year, through the Ministry of Information and Culture,
Alhaji Lai Mohammed, disclosed that it had recovered cash sums of
N78,325,354,631.82, $185,119,584.61, £3,508,355.46 and €11, 250, among others,
between May 29, 2015 and May 25, 2016.
The names of
persons from whom the funds were recovered were, however, not made public.
SERAP had
last year filed the suit, seeking a court order to compel the Federal
Government to make the names public.
The group
urged the court to determine whether by virtue of Section 4(a) of the Freedom
of Information Act 2011, the Federal was not under an obligation to publish the
looters’ names as it had requested.
In a
judgment on Wednesday, Justice Shagari, upheld the group’s argument that “by
virtue of the provisions of Section 4 (a) of the Freedom of Information Act
2011, the defendants are under a binding legal obligation to provide the
plaintiff with up-to-date information” as regards the names of the high-ranking
public officials from whom the funds were recovered as well as “the
circumstances under which the stolen public funds were returned.”
SERAP had,
in its suit marked FHC/CS/964/2016, contended thatby releasing the names of the
looters, the Federal Government had nothing to lose.
“By
virtue of Section 1(1) of the FOI Act 2011, the plaintiff is entitled, as of
right, to request for or gain access to information which is in the custody or
possession of any public official, agency or institution.”
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