Court Orders FG to Publish Names of Treasury Looters

Ladipo Sanusi
A Federal High Court in Lagos has ordered the federal government to make public names of those that looted public funds.
The court specifically ordered the immediate “release to Nigerians information about the names of high ranking public officials from whom public funds were recovered and the circumstances under which funds were recovered, as well as the exact amount recovered from each public official”.
Justice Hadiza Shagari delivered the judgment, on Wednesday, in a Freedom of Information suit number: FHC/CS/964/2016, filed by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP).
The judge agreed with SERAP that “the federal government has a legally binding obligation to tell Nigerians the names of all suspected looters of the public treasury past and present”.
Joined as defendants in the suit are, the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed and the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture.
In granting SERAP’s application, Justice Rabiu-Shagari declared that by the 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 to be widely disseminated, including on a dedicated website, information about the names of high ranking public officials from whom public funds were recovered since May 2015.
The federal government had disclosed, last year, that funds were recovered from some high-ranking public and private individuals, but refused to disclose their identities.