…FG in dilemma on probe of previous public officers
Recent judgment ordering disclosure of spending details of about $5 billion Sani Abacha loot by the governments of former presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Yar’Adua, Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari, may have left the Federal Government in a dilemma.
It has not been the tradition since 1999 for presidents to investigate or probe their predecessors. But the court judgment leaves the Government with little options.
Whichever way the government chooses to go, the development is bound to go down in history as another boost to the profile of the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), as a civil society organisation with unwavering commitment to holding public office holders accountable in the management and utilisation of public funds.
Recall that SERAP had approached the court in 2020 to compel the government of the then President Muhammadu Buhari to fully grant its requests of providing details of the spending of the recovered Abacha loot. The then Federal Government had told SERAP that it had no records of the exact amount of public funds stolen by Abacha and no records of the spending of about $5 billion recovered loot for the period between 1999 and 2015.
The Government’s response followed SERAP’s Freedom of Information (FoI) requests sent to the then Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, and the then Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, requesting: “information on the exact amount of public funds stolen by Abacha, and details of spending of about $5 billion recovered loot since the return of democracy in 1999.”
According to SERAP at the time, only Malami had sent a reply to its FoI requests. In the reply dated February 26, (2020) but, which, SERAP said it received March 9, (2020) Malami said: “We have searched our records and the information on the exact amount of public funds stolen by Abacha and how recovered loot was spent from 1999–2015 is not held by the Ministry”.
Malami also said: “However, a total of $322 million was recovered from Switzerland in January 2018 and the funds were used for Social Investment Project. Also, $308 million was recovered from the Island of Jersey in collaboration with the USA. While awaiting the transfer of the money to Nigeria, it has been designated for the following projects: Lagos—Ibadan Expressway; Abuja—Kano Expressway, and Second Niger Bridge”.
Not satisfied with Malami’s reply, SERAP Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare said: “The failure to provide information on the exact amount stolen by Abacha and on spending of recovered loot for the period between 1999 and 2015 implicitly amounts to a refusal by the government. The government also failed to provide sufficient details on the spending and planned spending of the $630 million it said it recovered since 2018.”
In his ruling last week on the FoI suit brought by SERAP, Justice James Omotosho, of the Federal High Court in Abuja, ordered the government of President Bola Tinubu to “disclose the exact amount of money stolen by General Sani Abacha from Nigeria, and the total amount of Abacha loot recovered and all agreements signed on same by the governments of former presidents Obasanjo, Yar’Adua, Jonathan and Buhari”.
The Judge ordered the Government to “disclose details of the projects executed with the Abacha loot, locations of any such projects and the names of companies and contractors that carried or carrying out the projects since the return of democracy in 1999 till date”.
In a letter dated 8 July 2023 sent to President Tinubu on the judgment, and signed by SERAP’s Kolawole Oluwadare, the organisation said, “We urge you to demonstrate your expressed commitment to the rule of law by immediately obeying and respecting the judgment of the Court”.
Pundits say the Government may choose to obey the court order and go through the rigorous process of gathering the documents that will provide information about the required details; or it may also toe the line of disregarding the order and acquire the infamy of failing the test of rule of law.
However, an outspoken Lagos lawyer, Barr. Fred Nzeako, has described the judgment secured by SERAP as looking like one of those orders that are not likely to be obeyed, given the way things are done in Nigeria.
