The ex- Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has been ordered by a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos to account for the N30tn which a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Prof. Charles Soludo, claimed went missing under her watch.
It would be recalled that Okonjo-Iweala had failed to provide a valid defense against a suit seeking the injunction for her to account for the alleged missing money hence the order from the Federal High Court.
Also a group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, had demanded that under the Freedom of Information Act,Okonjo should provide explanation for the missing money as they filed a suit before Justice Buba after the ex-minister did not oblige its request. The Federal Government was joined as a respondent in the suit.
According to Executive Director of SERAP, Adetokunbo Mumuni,who quoted Justice Buba during his judgement last week that she had no no legal justification to ignore the request to account for the allegedly missing N30tn.
The quote reads, “The court has gone through the application and agrees that SERAP’s application has merit and the argument is not opposed. SERAP’s application is granted as prayed.”
The judge gave its support to the plaintiff’s argument ,“should have either supply the information requested by SERAP or communicate her denial within seven days of the receipt of the letter from SERAP if she considers that the request should be denied.”
