Tag Archives: FOI

FOI: Delta commissioner convicted for withholding information

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The Delta State Commissioner for Lands and Survey, Mr Daniel Okenyi and other top officials of the state government have been convicted for withholding information under the Freedom of Information Act.

They were convicted by a Kwale High Court of Justice for failure to release relevant land documents to community leaders from Umu-Okpala Omai family of Umusam community in Kwale.

The community leaders, relying on the FOI act, had written to the ministry and other relevant officials to demand records of land acquired by an oil firm, Midwestern Oil and Gas PLC at Umusadege marginal oil field in OML 56.

The commissioner, Mr Daniel Okenyi, along with his ministry, Permanent Secretary in the ministry and others were ordered by the presiding judge, Honourable Justice O Jalogho-Williams, to pay N2.5million.

They were also ordered to henceforth provide relevant land records and information to the community leaders in line with the FOI act.

In the judgement dated November 01, 2016 a copy of which was obtained by The Nation, Justice Jalogho-Williams agreed with the complainants, represented by Osteen Igbapike Esq., that as a public officer, the commissioner and the ministry acted against the FOI.

He stressed that they were obliged to release the relevant documents to the community leaders and awarded N200, 000 as cost of the suit against the commissioner.

Okenyi, who was second respondent in the case and four others, were therefore convicted of “willful denial of requested record/documents/information in the custody of the Ministry of Lands and Survey.”

Legal sources told our reporter that the very high-ranking Delta government might be the biggest public officeholder to be caught in the FOI net since the law was enacted.

The Nation gathered that the conviction followed a legal action instituted against the MLSUD by Pa Moses Okpala, Benedict Okweye, Sunday Ndubuishi, Nwaizemeka Fredrick and Okweye Sunday against the commissioner and the ministry for failure to release documents relating to the acquisition of a parcel of land for oil exploration activities by the oil firm.

It was learnt that they applied to the ministry to provide vital documents as to the acquisition of the land eight years.

Reacting to the judgement, Igbapike told our reporter, “The ministry has powers to the documents and they have access to it,” adding that more Nigerians should hold government officials accountant for failure to perform their duties.

He said that the FOI act provides that once your request is not answered, it is assumed that it has been denied and commended the judge for doing the right thing.

Meanwhile, attempts to get reaction of the commissioner and his ministry to the judgment were futile, although it was gathered that Okenyi and the other respondents failed to appear in court, respond or send representatives.

Open Government: How This Nigerian State is Blazing the Trail in Budget Transparency

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The importance of open governance in a political environment where corruption is endemic like Nigeria cannot be overstated. For decades successive administrations at federal, state and local government levels have capitalised on the opactiy of public finance to perpetuate massive corruption and mismanagement of public funds.

 

The process of budgeting and its implementation in Nigeria is one that is fraught with corruption. This is not unconnected to the fact that budget documents are rarely made available to the public for scrutiny. In light of this, the decision by the Kaduna State government under the leadership of Mallam Nasir El-Rufai to make the state 2017 budget available to all and sundry is commendable.

 

The Kaduna State 2017 – 2019 budget made available on the website of Kaduna Ministry of Budget and Planning contains full details of revenue and expenditure projections in an open and transparent manner. This is the first time any government in Nigeria is making such detailed budget information available to the public.

 

According to the information on the website, the key targets of the Kaduna State 2017-2019 Budget are:

 

  • Ensuring adequate provision for the completion in 2017 of projects and procurements initiated in 2016;
  • Ensuring the actualization of the development priorities of the government as articulated in the State Development Plan (SDP) and respective Sector Implementation Plans (SIPs);
  • Maintaining a favourable proportion of Capital to Recurrent expenditure (a target of 60%:40%);
  • Leverage N800 billion in PPP funding between 2016 and 2020;
  • Maintain a sustainable debt position in line with Federal Debt Management office(FDMO) criteria
  • Expand the revenue base of the state by exploring untapped sources
  • Improve economic growth through investment in physical infrastructure
  • Eliminating wastage and other unjustifiable expenditure that are not clearly linked to policy objectives; and
  • Continue interventions in the social sector that will enable the less privileged have opportunities to grow through targeted investments in education and healthcare.

 

Download the Kaduna 2017 – 2016 Budget here: DOWNLOAD

BAMIDELE ATURU SECURES FIRST FOI ORDER

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Bamidele Aturu

The struggle for transparency and openness received a boost today, the 1st day of March 2012 as Honourable Justice B.F.M Nyako of the Lagos Judicial Division of the Federal High Court granted the claim of Olasupo Ojo Esq in his action for himself and on behalf of the Committee for the Defence Human Rights (CDHR) under the Freedom of Information Act, 2011. The law firm of Bamidele Aturu and Co had approached the court on behalf of the Plaintiff for an order of mandamus directing the EFCC to disclose to or make available to him the information he requested in his solicitor’s letter to the Commission dated the 7th day of June 2011.

It will be recalled that the EFCC had accused Mr Ojo who was then the President of the CDHR of compromising himself and the organization by collecting the sum of N52 Million from some of the suspects being investigated by the Commission in order to weaken it. On the instruction of our client we wrote pursuant the Freedom of Information Act to the Commission on the 7th of June 2011 demanding the following:

a.       Name of the suspect or suspects that gave N52 Million to the leadership of the CDHR

b.      Persons in the leadership of the CDHR to whom the money was given

c.       The manner in which the money was paid, that is, when, where and how.

The Commission, under the controversial former leadership, failed to deliver the information sought by our client in breach of the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act. The order of the court today is a mandatory one which must be obeyed by the Commission. Effectively, the court has directed the Commission to supply the information requested by us on behalf of our client.

We expect the new leadership of the Commission to comply with the Court order forthwith. But if it does not, we will do everything humanly and legally possible to ensure that somebody gets decisively punished for disobeying the order. Our firm reiterates that in order to build democracy, statutory bodies must refrain from maligning credible individuals to score cheap and infamous points. We are committed to this goal implacably.

In the meantime we are grateful to God that we succeeded in obtaining the first order under the Freedom of Information Act. We also commend the justice for her courage. Nigerians must make use of the Act to expose corruption and corrupt or reckless public officials. May God bless Nigeria.

Bamidele Aturu Esq