A Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt has struck out a suit filed by Paul Ogbonna and one other representing a group known as Social Action against the Attorney General of the Federation over the release of the Forensic Audit Report of the Niger Delta Development Commission.
The plaintiffs had, in 2022, after the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs declined to furnish their organisation with the report of the forensic audit, filed a suit requesting the court to mandate the ministry, then headed by Godswill Akpabio, now President of the Senate, to furnish them with the NDDC forensic audit report.
Recall that President Bola Tinubu, upon resumption of office, scrapped the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, a development which prompted the representatives of Social Action to amend their processes and join the Attorney General of the Federation as the legal authority of the country.
Delivering judgment on the suit on Tuesday, the presiding judge, Justice Turaki Mojammed, struck out the suit on the ground that it was filed against a non-existent government agency.
While no counsel represented the AGF, during the judgment, the plaintiff’s counsel, Victor Nweke, who spoke to newsmen outside the courtroom, gave details of the reason for the suit and what had transpired over the years.
He, however, expressed displeasure with the court’s decision, saying they will take the next available opportunity to ensure that his clients’ rights are not denied.
Nweke stated, “The Court has given a judgment in that suit today…When President Bola Tinubu took office, the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs was abolished.
“Leveraging on that, we applied because the earlier relief we were seeking was against the Ministry of the Niger Delta. So we refiled our processes and removed the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs from the suit.
“We retained the Attorney-General of the Federation, knowing too well that he is the number one law officer of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
He continued, “We are not satisfied because the matter was not dismissed. It was merely struck out. So we will still come because the court has the requisite jurisdiction to equally entertain the matter again.
“So we are going to file the suit again, and that information that the government has refused to give to us must be given because the Freedom of Information Act 2011 made it expressly clear that citizens of the Federal Republic of Nigeria are entitled to any document that is in the custody of any public office in Nigeria.”
On his part, one of the plaintiffs, Paul Ogbonna, who is the head of legal of Social Action in Rivers State, said the suit is part of their efforts to keep the anti-corruption campaign afloat.
He said they are bound by the judgment; he expressed displeasure with the court’s position.
Ogbonna stated, “We are bound by the ruling of the Court, but it is unacceptable to us. We were convinced that Nigerians should have access to the Forensic Audit Report.
“NDDC is a public institution, and therefore, for more than a decade, billions of naira were sunk into the commission to fast-track development in the region.
“And of course, the question of the development in the Niger Delta has been a problem in the Nigerian political discussion over the years. So we felt that so much money hasn’t been sunk into the agency without commensurate results for the people.”
“So the organisation, as an anti-corruption body, institutes this suit through those of us in the civil society for the forensic report to be made open so that Nigerians will know precisely what happened over the years, as a justification for public funds that have been released to the institution.
“Like I said, the judgment is unacceptable le to us. We shall take the necessary legal moves and continue our campaign. We must get to the end of it. The suit must be determined compulsively and conclusively one way or the other.
“We must continue to canvass and carry out programs that will deepen the anti-corruption campaign so that public institutions and individuals must be held responsible for their stewardship to the Nigerian people.”
