Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has sued the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mr Nyesom Wike, and the 36 state governors over their failure to account for trillions of FAAC allocations collected by their states and the FCT since 1999.
The rights group filed the lawsuit last Friday at the Federal High Court, Abuja after the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) disbursed N1.123 trillion to the federal, state, and local governments for March 2024.
SERAP also said the three tiers of government shared N1.208 trillion in April. While states collected N398.689 billion in March, they received N403.403 billion in April.
According to a statement released by the SERAP’s Deputy Director, Mr Kolawole Oluwadare, in the case —FHC/ABJ/CS/666/2024, the group is asking the court to “direct and compel the governors and Mr Wike to publish spending details of the FAAC allocations collected by their states and the FCT since 1999 including the list and locations of projects executed with the money.”
In their suit, SERAP said: “Nigerians ought to know in what manner public funds including FAAC allocations, are spent by the governors and FCT minister.”
“Opacity in the spending of the FAAC allocations collected by the governors and Mr Wike would continue to have negative impacts on the fundamental interests of the citizens.
“Trillions of FAAC allocations received by Nigeria’s 36 states and the FCT have allegedly gone down the drain. The resulting human costs directly threaten the human rights of socially and economically vulnerable Nigerians,” the organisation added.
