Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has filed a lawsuit against President Bola Tinubu over his failure to direct the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Mr Lateef Fagbemi, SAN “to work with appropriate anti-corruption agencies to probe allegations that over N57 billion of public funds are missing, diverted or stolen from the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation in 2021 alone.”
The allegations are documented in the 2021 audited report released last month by the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation.
Joined in the suit as Respondent is Mr Fagbemi.
In the suit number FHC/L/MISC/876/2024 filed on Friday at the Federal High Court, Lagos, SERAP is asking the court “to compel President Tinubu to direct Mr Fagbemi to work with appropriate anti-corruption agencies to promptly probe allegations that over N57 billion of public funds were missing, diverted or stolen from the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation in 2021.”
SERAP is also asking the court “to compel President Tinubu to direct Mr Fagbemi to work with appropriate anticorruption agencies to prosecute anyone suspected to be responsible for the missing N57 billion if there is sufficient admissible evidence, and to recover any missing public funds.”
In the suit, SERAP is arguing that: “Investigating the allegations and prosecuting those suspected to be responsible for the missing N57 billion and recovering the missing funds would end the impunity of perpetrators.”
The suit filed on behalf of SERAP by its lawyers, Kolawole Oluwadare and Ms Oluwakemi Agunbiade, read in part: “Granting the reliefs sought would go a long way in addressing corruption in ministries, departments and agencies [MDAs] and the country’s budget deficit and debt problems.
“The damning revelations are documented in the 2021 audited report released recently by the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation. Hundreds of billions of naira are also reportedly missing in other MDAs.
“According to the 2021 annual audited report by the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation, the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, [the Ministry] in 2021 failed to account for over N54 billion [N54,630,000,000.00] meant to pay monthly stipends to Batch C1 N-Power volunteers and non-graduate trainees between August and December 2021.
“The Ministry also reportedly failed to account for over N2.6 billion [N2,617,090,786.00] of public funds meant for the ‘home-grown school feeding programme during Covid-19’, as ‘the programme was never executed.’”
“The money was allegedly paid to five contractors to ‘procure, package and distribute Covid-19 palliatives to Kano, Zamfara and Abia states but without any trace.
“The Auditor-General fears the money ‘may have been diverted.’ He wants the money recovered and remitted to the treasury.
“The Ministry also reportedly spent over N78 million [N78,373,909.74] to ‘survey the Ministry’s Covid-19 response to states and vulnerable groups’ but without any approval or document.
“The Ministry also reportedly failed to account for N39.5 million [M39,500,000.00] ‘personal donations to different personalities’. The money ‘was paid directly to the minister as reimbursement’.
“The Ministry also reportedly failed to account for N400 million [N400,000,000.00] meant to pay ‘stipends to 4450 independent monitors for October, November and December 2021.’
“The Auditor-General fears all the money ‘may have been diverted’. He wants the money recovered and remitted to the treasury.”
No date has been fixed for the hearing of the suit.