The Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has blasted the civil society group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) for instituting a lawsuit against her over her failure to provide information about how the alleged missing N30tn was spent.
According to Premium Times the minister described the suit as fake, and said it was “the latest in the campaign of falsehood and politicization of the economy by persons and groups who are getting more desperate by the day, because the economy, despite their propaganda, was still standing and will continue to stand”.
SERAP had instituted the case against the Minister for “failure to provide information about spending of the alleged missing N30trillion”, which the group said represented “some accruable income to the Federal Government in the past four years”.
The suit, filed at the Federal High Court, Ikoyi, Lagos, followed a Freedom of Information request by the civil society group to the Minister dated February 2.
The group’s suit followed the disclosure by former Central Bank Governor, Charles Soludo in an article that over N30trillion was missing, or stolen, or unaccounted for, or simply mismanaged under the minister’s watch.
As trustee of public funds, SERAP said Okonjo-Iweala has a legal duty to render account on the missing trillion to the beneficiaries (Nigerians) of the trust, if and when called upon to do so.
So far, the group noted, she has “failed, refused and/or neglected to provide the Plaintiff with the details of the information requested”.
But, the Minister in her reaction through a statement on Tuesday by Paul Nwabuikwu her spokesperson, said the group had brought “a politically motivated suit” against her “based on the discredited N30 trillion allegation by Professor Charles Soludo”.
Characteristically, the minister’s statement was unsparing of the civil society group with a heavy dose of tongue lashing, saying the suit “confirms that SERAP is nothing but a political tool of the opposition hiding behind the façade of advocacy”.
“Like their previous efforts, this latest one will fail because Nigerians can see through their antics. We look forward to meeting SERAP in court,” the statement declared.
It would be recalled that the refusal of Okonjo-Iweala to explain her role in the purported missing money, led the group to file a lawsuit against her.
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