President Muhammadu Buhari has been sued over “his failure to probe allegations that N106 billion of public funds was missing from 149 ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) under his watch”.
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, (SERAP) filed the lawsuit, to force the President to ensure the prosecution of those suspected to be responsible and to recover the missing public funds.
The suit followed the allegations by the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation in his 2018 annual audited report that almost N106bn of public funds was missing, misappropriated, or unaccounted for across 149 MDAs.
In the suit, filed last week at the Federal High Court in Abuja, SERAP is arguing, am that, “Recovering the alleged missing public funds would reduce the pressure on the Federal Government to borrow more money to fund the budget, enable the authorities to meet the country’s constitutional and international obligations, and reduce the growing level of public debts”.
SERAP is also arguing that, “The alleged missing public funds have hampered the ability of the indicted MDAs to meet the needs of average citizens, as the missing funds could have helped the government to invest in key public goods and services, and to improve access of Nigerians to these goods and services.”
Joined in the suit as Respondents are the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation; (AGF), Abubakar Malami, SAN, and Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed.
The suit was filed on behalf of SERAP by its lawyers Kolawole Oluwadare and Ms. Joke Fekumo.
No date has been fixed for the hearing of the suit.
