General
Ambode Under Fire over Report on Secrecy in Govt. Spending
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Lagos State Governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode, has come under sharp criticisms over a report by an online newspaper, Premium Times, alleging that his administration has not been transparent with taxes of residents.
Those who reacted to the piece said they find it hard to believe that the state government force residents of the state to pay their taxes and threaten to punish them if they fail to comply, but government do not see mandatory to explain how the funds were used.
“In Nigeria, govt compels you to pay up ur taxes, yet cannot be transparent as to how these monies are spent! Absolute nonsense!” a commenter said on Twitter.
Below is the report by Premium Times.
There were smiles on the faces of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode and the two men who sat on both sides inside the Lagos House, Ikeja, as cameras’ clicked while the governor signed the Lagos State government’s N813 billion Appropriation Bill for 2017 into Law.
Flanked by Akinyemi Ashade, the Commissioner for Finance, and Rotimi Olowo, the Chairman House Committee on Appropriation, Mr Ambode said his administration was committed to prudent financial management and would ensure proper fiscal discipline in the implementation of the Appropriation Law.
The budget, the biggest ever by the Lagos State government since its creation, was made up of N507.816 billion earmarked for capital expenditure and N305.182 billion set aside for recurrent expenditure, an aggregate ration of 62:38.
But a breakdown of the budget figures has been kept away from the cameras as well as the public, a marked departure from previous years where even a summary of expenditures and earnings were uploaded on the government’s official website.
“They (Lagos State government) are very tricky about it,” Stanley Achonu, Operations Lead at BudgIT, a civic organisation that helps Nigerians better understand government’s annual budgets.
“What they publish is the summary of the budget, you know, what went to what ministry, it doesn’t include details of the budget.”
For the 2017 fiscal year, both the summary and the detailed breakdown – which had never been publicly disclosed – of the budget is missing on the budget website of the Lagos State government.
Months of efforts to get a clarification from Steve Ayorinde, the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, yielded no results as he neither answered phone calls nor replied text messages.
A silent government
While providing a sectoral breakdown of the state’s 2017 budget last January, Mr Ashade said roads and infrastructure would get N141.692 billion, almost 20 percent of the total budget.
Between February and July, Governor Ambode commissioned over a dozen infrastructural projects, including the Abule Egba and Ajah Fly Overs; the Aboru-Abesan Link Bridge; and the Ojodu Berger Pedestrian Bridge, Lay By, Slip Road and Segregated Bus Park.
Others include the Omotayo Banwo/Kola Iyamolere Street in Ogudu, Kosofe local council; the Admiralty/Freedom Road in Lekki; the pedestrian bridge in Ojota; and a walkway in Jakande, Lekki.
In August, PREMIUM TIMES submitted two requests to the Lagos State government – an official letter requesting information and a Freedom of Information request – seeking the cost of some of these projects, including that of the 20 patrol vehicles procured for the Rapid Response Squad of the Lagos State Police Command.
Although the state government acknowledged receipt of the two letters, there have been no responses two months after.
A similar FOI request months earlier asking for the cost of some projects undertaken by the state’s water corporation was also acknowledged but the information was not provided.
A Subnational Transparency Report published this year by BudgIT listed Lagos State among 16 states in Nigeria without a detailed public budget.
Sectoral allocations in the budget of Lagos State
On March 27, the state government held a “world press conference” where it rolled out activities lined up for the last 50 days of the Lagos@50 celebration – musical concerts, boat regatta, jazz and film festivals, comedy show and the governor’s banquet among dozens of other events – to commemorate the state’s 50th anniversary.
The state government did not also respond to PREMIUM TIMES enquiries about how much was spent on the year-long event.
But in an interview with Punch newspapers last May, Mr Ayorinde, responding to a question on how much the Lagos@50 celebration cost the state government said they received “more than N1 billion” in support from “sponsors.”
“Before the sponsors came, what Lagos did was to give seed money so that things could move. But from sponsors alone, we have raised more than N1bn which is not just going into celebration,” Mr Ayorinde said.
He did not provide details as to how much was the ‘seed money,’ who the sponsors were, and how the funds were disbursed.
Lanre Arogundade, Chairman of the International Press Centre, said the lack of access to public information in Lagos State is a concern for citizens and called for the issue to address urgently.
“Lagos is supposed to be the centre of excellence in everything but when the budget is not easily accessible, that’s worrisome,” Mr Arogundade said.
“We can only talk of high rate of transparency when FOI requests are responded to, when information are made readily available.”
In July, the Social Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) in conjunction with BudgIT wrote to the state’s procurement agency over the unavailability of public procurement journal to the public.
In a correspondence seen by PREMIUM TIMES, the agency said the governor had just inaugurated its governing board and had just requested to set a threshold for what it would consider as “major contracts.”
It further stated that the agency was working towards a holistic upgrade of its website in order to make it more interactive and advanced in line with international best practices.
“Upon completion of the said upgrade which we hope will be accommodated in the 2018 budget, the agency website will be better positioned to supply adequate responses to enquiries from stakeholders,” the agency stated in its response dated 11th July 2017.
Adetokunbo Mumuni, Executive Director at SERAP, said while his organisation had not had a “serious interaction” with the present government, it had had little success with Mr Ambode’s predecessor, Babatunde Fashola.
In December 2013, SERAP wrote to the Lagos State government requesting information and documents on spendings in public schools, following a $90 million World Bank loan, between 2009 and 2013.
The government did not respond.
In suit FHC/L/CS/57/2014 filed before a Lagos Division of the Federal High Court, SERAP urged the court to declare that by virtue of the provisions of Section 4(a) of the Freedom of Information Act, 2011, the governor is under a binding obligation to provide it with the information requested.
In its counter affidavit, the Lagos State government, represented by then Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Ade Ipaye, argued that the Freedom of Information Act was a federal legislation and, as a result, not binding on states.
“The public records of Lagos State government are generated and kept by various ministries, departments, agencies and personnel of the state government in execution of their functions and responsibility in the service of the state,” Mr Ipaye, who is now Chief of Staff to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, said.
“Such state government agencies and personnel are statutorily created or regulated by laws of the state House of Assembly and the handling of public of public records has serious security implications which are routinely handled by rules established by the state government.”
The court ruled in favour of Lagos State government.
“We’d sought information about the state of primary schools and what they have done; they refused, they insisted that the FOI must be domesticated,” Mr. Mumuni told PREMIUM TIMES.
“We reacted that that shouldn’t be and gave reasons why it shouldn’t be domesticated before such information is made available to us.
“We went to court but we lost. We are still appealing the case.”
In 2014, another division of the federal high court, in Enugu, ruled that the Freedom of Information Act is applicable in all states of the federation.
Hitting a brick wall
This year, Mr Arogundade’s IPC – in collaboration with BudgIT – sought to get a copy of the 2017 Lagos State government budget.
They hit a brick wall.
“I think it’s something worrisome and the issue needs to be taken up… because more can still be done by the government,” Mr Arogundade said.
Last February, a PREMIUM TIMES reporter seeking the Lagos State government’s response to claims by traders at the rebuilt Tejuosho Market in Yaba, was given the run-around by government officials.
First, the market officials directed the reporter to the Public Relations Officer at the state’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry at the Alausa secretariat, where an official redirected him to Lagos State Market Board.
At the Lagos State Market Board at the Old Secretariat in Ikeja GRA, a senior government official who declined to respond to questions directed the reporter back to Alausa, to the LGA Unit of state’s Ministry of Local Government Affairs, where he was referred to the Public Relations Officer.
Bisi Olufuwa, the ministry’s PRO, said she would direct the questions to her boss, the permanent secretary of the ministry.
“I am just seeing this (and you, too) for the first time and I promise to fix a session where you will meet my boss and discuss these issues,” said Ms Olufuwa.
The session was never fixed.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
A Federal High Court in Lagos has been urged to stop the federal government from further extending the moratorium on the ban on sachet alcohol in the country.
This request came from the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), which asked the court for injunctive orders restraining the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and the Attorney-General of the Federation who represents the Federal Government, including the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), from further extending the deadline and interfering with the statutory powers of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) to enforce the ban.
The federal government intends to prohibit the production, distribution, and sale of alcohol in sachet format but manufacturers are lobbying to alter this.
A few days ago, the federal government suspended the policy due to concerns raised by the House of Representatives Committee on Food and Drugs Administration and Control.
This action was applauded by the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA), which noted that the sachet and PET segment of the alcoholic beverage industry accounts for a significant portion of the estimated N800 billion invested in the sector and supports thousands of direct and indirect jobs in manufacturing, packaging, logistics, wholesale and retail.
But SERAP seems not to be impressed with this as it, in a suit marked FHC/L/CS/2568/25, prayed for a perpetual injunction restraining the government from directing, preventing, blocking, or stopping NAFDAC from enforcing the prohibition, in line with its statutory functions under Sections 5 and 30(c) of the NAFDAC Act, the Spirits Drink Regulation, and the Memorandum of Resolution executed on December 19, 2018.
The civil rights group argues that the continued delay by the relevant federal authorities in enforcing the ban amounts to a failure to implement long-standing public health regulations designed to curb alcohol abuse, protect public safety, and safeguard citizens’ well-being.
In an originating summons dated December 15, 2025, SERAP contends that the ongoing circulation of sachet alcohol violates the National Health Act, 2014, the NAFDAC Act, the Spirits Drink Regulation, 2021, and the Memorandum of Resolution of December 19, 2018, which collectively mandate a nationwide ban on sachet alcohol.
The organisation wants the court to determine whether the Minister of Health can lawfully refuse or fail to enforce the prohibition, and whether any federal authority has the power to interfere with or delay NAFDAC’s statutory duty to enforce the ban.
It also wants the court to decide whether, given the acknowledged dangers of alcohol abuse, judicial intervention is required in the interest of public health, public safety, and public order.
According to SERAP, sachet alcohol, often cheap, highly potent, and widely accessible, has been linked to rising cases of alcohol abuse, particularly among young people and low-income communities. It argues that the 2018 Memorandum of Resolution and subsequent regulations were adopted precisely to address these risks.
Among the reliefs sought are declarations that the sachet alcohol ban is a valid regulation under the NAFDAC Act; that the Minister of Health has no legal authority to grant or extend any moratorium on its enforcement; and that it is unlawful for any federal authority to interfere with NAFDAC’s enforcement responsibilities.
SERAP is also asking the court, in the suit filed on its behalf by Mofesomo Tayo-Oyetibo (SAN), alongside a team of lawyers from Tayo Oyetibo LP, to affirm that the defendants have a duty to ensure the full implementation of the ban nationwide.
The court is expected to fix a hearing date in a few days time.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Anambra State Executive Council (ANSEC), under Governor Charles Soludo, has taken a bold step to address the pressing issue of erosion in the state, while also recovering government lands and awarding strategic projects aimed at boosting the state’s economy and improving the quality of life of its citizens.
The Commissioner for Information, Mr Law Mefor, made this known after the 25th ANSEC meeting held recently at the Lighthouse, Awka.
He revealed that the meeting noted with grave concern the existential threat posed by erosion in Anambra, citing the careless actions of communities and regulatory bodies that have disregarded environmental regulations.
“The council has decided to step up enforcement measures to force individuals to build and manage storm waters from their houses and for communities to follow specific guidelines, such as building erosion barriers and excavating sand only in designated locations,” Mr Mefor stated.
He emphasised that the government will not hesitate to take stern action against individuals and communities that fail to comply with environmental regulations.
To address the issue, the government will enforce strict adherence to environmental regulations, mandate the construction of erosion barriers and proper sand excavation practices, and collaborate with relevant agencies to hold those responsible for the erosion menace.
It is also confident that with the support of the people, it will overcome the challenges posed by erosion and achieve its vision of making Anambra State a destination where economic and business activities thrive.
Furthermore, the council has resolved to form a committee to reclaim government lands in and around Anambra State that have been intruded upon and built upon without permission.
“The government will not stand idly by while its lands are being grabbed and misused. We will take all necessary steps to recover these lands and ensure that they are used for the benefit of the people of Anambra State,” Mr Mefor said.
ANSEC has also awarded several strategic projects aimed at enhancing the state’s infrastructure development.
The projects include the provision of a water supply to the Ekwulobia Flyover Bridge Fountain and the ornamental garden for Double NC Construction & Logistics Ltd; the installation of a 3-way traffic light, including pedestrian lights, at the Ifite-Amenyi intersection within the Awka metropolis to S.N.U. Ventures, and the supply and installation of two 10 kVA inverters with 15 kW lithium batteries at the Anambra State Civil Service Commission Building in Awka to Kennolly Enterprises.
Others include the supply and installation of transformer substations at Nnewi and Umueze-Anam communities for Aries and Gold Ventures Limited, and Aljovic Construction Limited; and the landscaping of the car park for the Trauma Centre at Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Teaching Hospital (COOUTH), Amaku, Awka, for Triseconds Resources Limited.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The free delivery of premium motor spirit (PMS), otherwise known as petrol, across the country by the Dangote Petroleum Refinery will finally begin in January 2026. This was earlier scheduled for August 2025
This move, according to the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), will bring down the price of the product in Nigeria.
The group has, therefore, urged all its members nationwide to patronise the Lagos-based private oil facility because it offers the best affordable price for all marketers.
Dangote Refinery has agreed to directly supply PMS to registered members of IPMAN, according to a statement signed and issued by the organisation’s president, Mr Abubakar Maigandi Shettima.
At a press conference held in Abuja yesterday on recent happenings in the oil and gas sector, IPMAN also applauded the support of the Chairman of Dangote Petroleum Refinery, Mr Aliko Dangote towards the federal government, which it noted has become evident in the regular reduction of the petroleum pump price.
“The association has the highest percentage of the supply chain of the PMS downstream sector, controlling over 80 per cent of the petrol retail market. We therefore declare that there will be no gap or scarcity in PMS supply to Nigerians.
“We are also excited at the recent agreement by the Dangote Refinery to begin the supply of PMS products directly to registered IPMAN members, and its free delivery to our filling stations anywhere and everywhere in Nigeria which will commence in January 2026.
“This will again, certainly lead to further decrease in the pump price of the products at our filing stations.
“Therefore, I am calling on all IPMAN members nationwide to prioritise patronising the Dangote Refinery in their purchase of PMS products, as they already offer the best affordable prize for all marketers today,” the group stated.
“At IPMAN we have no doubt as to the viability of the oil and gas policies being initiated by the federal government, and we have ceaselessly called and sought for enhanced cooperation across all levels of governance in the oil and gas sector. Hence, our repeated persuasion to always partner the Dangote refinery, to ensure the steady availability of PMS products.
“The focus of the Dangote & IPMAN partnership, has always been geared towards making life better for Nigerians. And of course, this blooming partnership would never have been possible without the pragmatic leadership of President Bola Tinubu, and his sound judgment in readjusting the leadership of the NMDPRA and the NUPRC.
“Our position has always been to deepen domestic refining in order to eradicate imports of petroleum products. Continuous import is NOT an acceptable parallel business model, because issuing import licenses recklessly distorts market dynamics, drains foreign exchange, enthrones poverty, destroys jobs, and scares potential investors away,” Mr Shettima was quoted as saying in the statement.
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