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Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has sent a Freedom of Information Act (FoI) request to President Muhammadu Buhari asking him to direct Mr. Abubakar Malami, Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice and Mrs Zainab Ahmed, Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning to publish a comprehensive list of names of people from whom N800 billion in looted funds have been recovered and details of spending of the money and dates of the recovery.
SERAP also urged the president to direct appropriate anti-corruption agencies to promptly, thoroughly and transparently investigate allegations that payments totalling N51 billion were made into individual accounts in 2019.
SERAP said the president in his speech to mark the occasion of the Democracy Day on June 12 disclosed that the government’s anti-corruption fight had yielded over N800 billion in recovered loot.
In the letter dated June 13, signed by SERAP’s deputy director, Kolawole Oluwadare, the organisation said publishing the details regarding the N800 billion recovered loot and investigating the alleged suspicious payments into personal accounts would be entirely consistent with fundamental principles of due process, and Nigeria’s international anti-corruption commitments.
“The information will also reveal the truth of where money is going and why it is there, and allow Nigerians an opportunity to assess the impacts of any projects carried out with the recovered loot and the alleged payments into individual accounts.”
The letter, copied to Mr Malami and Mrs Ahmed, said “the public has a right to know how recovered N800 billion loot has been spent, and the details and purpose of the alleged payments into individual accounts.”
