The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has filed a lawsuit against the 36 state governors over their failure to account for the spending of N72 billion palliative collected from the Federal Government.
In the suit filed at the Federal High Court in Lagos, SERAP is seeking an order of mandamus to compel each of the governors to disclose details of the beneficiaries and the reliefs provided with the money.
SERAP also wants the court to order the governors to instruct the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offenses Commission (ICPC) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to monitor the spending of the fuel subsidy palliative.
The group argues that the failure by the governors to account for the public funds is both legally and morally wrong and that secrecy in the spending of the money would create distrust or suspicion of the government.
SERAP also says that government secrecy is fundamentally anti-democratic, promotes arbitrariness, and covers illegal acts.
The case is yet to be assigned to a judge, and no date has been fixed for the hearing.
