{"id":4099,"date":"2025-02-09T10:21:51","date_gmt":"2025-02-09T10:21:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/?p=4099"},"modified":"2025-02-09T10:21:58","modified_gmt":"2025-02-09T10:21:58","slug":"serap-drags-tinubu-to-court-over-%e2%82%a6167-billion-project-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/2025\/02\/09\/serap-drags-tinubu-to-court-over-%e2%82%a6167-billion-project-fraud\/","title":{"rendered":"SERAP Drags Tinubu To Court Over \u20a6167 Billion Project Fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has filed a lawsuit against President\u00a0 Bola Tinubu over his failure to order the prosecution of contractors who allegedly collected over \u20a6167 billion from 31 ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) without executing any projects.<\/h3>\n

In a statement sent to Naija News on Sunday, SERAP disclosed that the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice,\u00a0Lateef Fagbemi (SAN)<\/strong>, is also listed as a respondent in the case.<\/p>\n

Filed at the Federal High Court in Lagos on Friday under Suit No. FHC\/L\/MISC\/121\/2025, SERAP seeks a court order compelling President Tinubu to:<\/p>\n

1. Direct the AGF to prosecute all companies and contractors who received public funds for projects that were never executed.<\/p>\n

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2. Instruct the Minister of Finance,\u00a0Olawale Edun<\/strong>, to publish the names of all contractors and companies involved in the fraud.<\/p>\n

3. Disclose details of the projects, including their locations, amounts received, and shareholders of the companies involved.<\/p>\n

SERAP\u2019s legal team, led by\u00a0Kolawole Oluwadare<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Oluwakemi Agunbiade<\/strong>, argues that:<\/p>\n

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  • The massive corruption scandal undermines public access to essential services, such as healthcare and education.<\/li>\n
  • Holding the contractors accountable would curb waste, fraud, and abuse of public funds.<\/li>\n
  • Shielding corrupt entities from prosecution violates the Nigerian Constitution (1999 as amended), anti-corruption laws, and international obligations under the UN Convention against Corruption.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    SERAP emphasized that Nigeria\u2019s democratic governance depends on public accountability, stating: \u201cThe accountability of government to the general public is a hallmark of democratic governance, which Nigeria seeks to practice<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

    According to the 2021 Annual Audit Report by the Auditor-General of the Federation, published on November 13, 2024, the 31 MDAs paid \u20a6167,592,177,559.40 to companies for unexecuted projects.<\/p>\n

    Key highlights from the report:<\/h2>\n

    The Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc. (NBET) alone allegedly paid \u20a6100 billion to companies for projects that were never completed.<\/p>\n

    Nigerian Correctional Service<\/p>\n

    National Pension Commission, Abuja<\/p>\n

    Federal College of Land Resources Technology, Owerri<\/p>\n

    Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) Office<\/p>\n

    Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF)<\/p>\n

    Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development<\/p>\n

    Federal Medical Centre, Bida, Niger State<\/p>\n

    National Centre for Women Development<\/p>\n

    Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution<\/p>\n

    National Business and Technical Examinations Board (NABTEB)<\/p>\n

    Federal University of Gasua<\/p>\n

    Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs<\/p>\n

    SERAP maintains that transparency is key to accountability, urging the government to disclose all information related to these fraudulent contracts.<\/p>\n

    \u201cNigerians have the right to democratic governance, to influence government decisions, and to assess progress while holding officials accountable<\/em>,\u201d SERAP stated.<\/p>\n

    the court has yet to fix a hearing date for the case.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has filed a lawsuit against President\u00a0 Bola Tinubu over his failure to order the prosecution of contractors who allegedly collected over \u20a6167 billion from 31 ministries, departments,...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4100,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4099"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4101,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4099\/revisions\/4101"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}