SERAP asks Finance Minister to account for alleged missing N30trn

A civil society group, Socio-Economic Rights and
Accountability Project, SERAP, has sent a Freedom
of Information Act request to the Minister of
Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, urging her to
“urgently provide information about spending of the
alleged missing N30 trillion, which represents
some accruable income to the Federal Government
in the past four years.”
SERAP’s request followed disclosure by the former
Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Prof.
Chukwuma Soludo, that over N30 trillion had been
missing, or stolen, or unaccounted for, or simply
mismanaged, under the minister’s watch.
The organisation threatened to “take all appropriate
legal actions under the Freedom of Information Act
to compel” the minister to comply with the request
if “the information is not provided to us within 14
days of the receipt and/or publication of this
letter.”
In the letter of request dated February 2, 2015 by
SERAP’s Executive Director, Mr Adetokunbo
Mumuni, the organisation, said: “As trustee of
public funds, SERAP contends that your ministry
has a legal duty to render account on the missing
N30 trillion to the beneficiaries (Nigerians) of the
trust, if and when called upon to do so.
“As a key agency of government, the Ministry of
Finance has a sacred duty to ensure that the
country’s resources and wealth are used solely to
fulfil the basic economic and social rights of
Nigerians and achieve the country’s overall socio-
economic development. This implies providing
strong leadership in the efforts to curb public
sector corruption, and to refer to appropriate anti-
corruption agencies any allegation of corruption in
which any agency of government may be involved
or official of your Ministry may be complicit.
“We consider this a serious allegation that requires
your immediate and urgent clarifications. If true,
such allegation will clearly amount to a
fundamental breach of national anticorruption laws
and the country’s international anticorruption
obligations and commitments including under the
United Nations Convention against Corruption to
which Nigeria is a state party.”