B’Haram: SERAP begins legal battle against CBN

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has filed a court action against the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) over its failure to expose the staffer of the bank alleged to have ties with Boko Haram.

In an interview with TheCable, Stephen Davis, the Australian cleric who tried to negotiate the release of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls, had alleged that Boko Haram was being funded through CBN.

However, on September 15, SERAP issued a 14-day ultimatum to the apex bank to disclose the identity of the staff or risk court action.

Realising that the bank was unwilling to act on the matter, the body executed its threat on Tuesday.

Adetokunbo Mumuni, the executive director of the organisation, filed a suit at the federal high court in Ikoyi, Lagos.

SERAP alleged that the bank was under a binding legal obligation to provide detailed information on the person involved in alleged money laundering and the exact nature and duration of any such transactions.

“The CBN has, so far, failed, refused and/or neglected to provide the plaintiff with the details of the information requested. By virtue of section 1(1) of the FOI Act 2011, the plaintiff is entitled as of right to request for or gain access to information, which is in the custody or possession of any public official, agency or institution,” SERAP said in a statement.

“In a democratic society, this is meant to be a norm; it is an apostasy for public institutions like the CBN to ignore the provisions of the law.

“By virtue of Section 4 (a) of the FOI act when a person makes a request for information from a public official, institution or agency, the public official, institution or agency to whom the application is directed is under a binding legal obligation to provide the plaintiff with the information requested for, except as otherwise provided by the act, within seven days after the application is received.

“The information requested for, apart from not being exempted from disclosure under the FOI Act, bothers on an issue of national interest, public peace and security, public concern, social justice, good governance, transparency and accountability.

“The defendant will not suffer any injury or prejudice if the information is released to the plaintiff. The information requested for does not fall into the category of information exempted from disclosure by the provisions of the FOI Act.”

The rights group maintained that unless its reliefs were granted, CBN would be breaching the freedom of information act and other statutory responsibilities.

No date has yet been fixed for the hearing.