LAGOS — THE Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, has sued governors of the 36 states and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, FCT, Mr Nyesom Wike, over their failure to account for the spending of billions of naira of public funds in the name of ‘security votes’ since May 29, 2023.
The suit followed reports of the Benue massacre and well-documented ongoing cases of insecurity in several states and the FCT, despite the over N400 billion budgeted yearly as ‘security votes.’ Ten governors reportedly budgeted about N140 billion as security votes in 2026.
In the suit filed last Friday at the Federal High Court in Abuja, SERAP is asking the court to “direct and compel the governors and Mr Wike to disclose the details of the spending of security votes by them since May 29, 2023, to date, which are intended to ensure the security of life and property of Nigerians.”
SERAP is also asking the court to “compel the governors and Mr Wike to provide detailed reports on the allocation and spending of security votes by their states and the FCT, including the information on implementation status and completion reports, and the plans, if any, for improving the security infrastructure in the states and FCT.”
The organisation, in a suit filed by its lawyers, Messrs Oluwakemi Agunbiade, Andrew Nwankwo and Valentina Adegoke, said: “Nigerians ought to know in what manner public funds, including security votes meant to ensure the security of life and property of Nigerians, are spent by the governors and FCT Minister.
“The escalating insecurity in several states and FCT is taking a devastating toll on socially and economically vulnerable Nigerians, driving up extreme poverty, intensifying hunger and leading to other grave human rights violations.
“Several state governors and the FCT minister continue to fail to effectively discharge their primary and constitutional responsibility to protect the lives and property of the Nigerian people.
“The framers of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) never contemplated opaque spending of public funds as security votes.”
The suit reads in part: “There is a significant risk of embezzlement, misappropriation or diversion of public funds collected by the states and FCT as security votes.”
“Despite the billions of naira yearly budgeted as security votes, many governors and FCT ministers are grossly failing to guarantee and ensure the security and welfare of the Nigerian people, contrary to section 14(2)(b) of the Nigerian Constitution.
“Directing the governors and FCT Minister to account for security votes spending would serve to engage Nigerians in an honest conversation about the security problems and what the governors and minister are doing to respond to them.
“The intense secrecy and lack of meaningful oversight of the spending of security votes by governors have, for many years, contributed to large-scale stealing of public funds.
“The failure by state governors and FCT minister to disclose and account for the spending of security votes is a grave violation of the public trust and the provisions of the Nigerian Constitution, national anticorruption laws, and the country’s international human rights and anticorruption obligations.”
Meanwhile, no date has been fixed for the hearing of the suit.
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