The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has filed a lawsuit before the Federal High Court, Abuja, regarding the Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) allocations since 1999.
SERAP alleges in the suit marked, FHC/ABJ/CS/666/2024, that despite increased FAAC allocations to states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) over the years, millions of Nigerians have continued to face extreme poverty and lack access to basic public goods and services.
The suit made available to Nairametrics on Sunday was instituted against 36 state governors and Federal Capital Territory Minister, Nyesom Wike.
SERAP also seeks information regarding the list and locations of projects executed with the funds, across the country.
SERAP’s lead counsel, Kolawole Oluwadare, submitted that the suit is based on reports that FAAC disbursed N1.123 trillion to the federal, state, and local governments for March 2024, among others.
Here are the key reliefs sought by SERAP:
SERAP argues that the disclosure of the spending details of federal and state government allocations is the entitlement of Nigerians.
It is of the view that without the information on the spending details of the FAAC allocations, Nigerians cannot follow the actions of their states and the FCT and they cannot properly fulfill their responsibilities as citizens.
SERAP seeks:
SERAP contends that the government should be able to tell Nigerians the mechanism it established to update citizens on the progression and completion of projects.
It stressed that Nigerians ought to know in what manner public funds, including FAAC allocations, were spent by the governors and FCT minister, adding such information could be accessed if the governments operated transparent systems.
Serap seeks
The public interest advocacy group believes the involvement of anti-graft agencies in FAAC allocation spending will expose corruption timely.