Electricity: SERAP seeks court order compelling Fashola to name contract defaulters

Doosuur Iwambe, Abuja

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has asked a Lagos State High Court to compel the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, SAN, to provide specific details on the names and whereabouts of the contractors who collected public funds meant for electricity projects but disappeared with the money without executing any projects. SERAP in suit number FHC/L/CS/105/19 filed last week is seeking “an order for leave to apply for judicial review and an order of mandamus compelling Fashola to publish the names of contractors and companies beginning from 1999 to 2018, since the return of democracy. The suit followed SERAP’s Freedom of Information request dated 4 January, 2019 giving Fashola 14 days to publish the names of all contractors and companies that have been engaged in the power sector since the return of democracy in 1999 to date. “Details of specific projects and the amounts that have been paid to the contractors and companies, details on the level of implementation of electricity projects and their specific locations across the country,” the group said. According to thes, publishing the names will make it hard for contractors and companies to get away with complicity in grand corruption. SERAP asked that the citizens have the right to see that the Freedom of Information Act is enforced where there is an infraction of the right to information or a threat of its being violated, in matters of public interests. The suit filed on behalf of SERAP by its counsel, Adelanke Aremo, read in part: “By compelling Mr. Fashola to name the contractors and their registration details, if any, Nigerians will be better able to hold them to account for allegedly absconding with public funds meant for electricity projects, thereby throwing the country into perpetual darkness and socio-economic stagnation as well as denying people their human rights. “Granting the order as prayed would ensure that allegations of complicity in grand corruption by contractors and companies in the power sector do not go unpunished. Unless the names of the contractors and companies are disclosed and widely published, alleged corrupt contractors and companies executing electricity projects will not be deterred and the victims of corruption that they committed will continue to be denied justice and effective remedies. “To date no contractors or companies who allegedly collected money for electricity projects not executed or poorly executed have been investigated for corruption let alone prosecuted and fined. Senior public officials who apparently served as intermediaries for these contractors and companies continue to escape justice”. The reliefs sought by SERAP include: “An order directing and/or compelling the Respondent to compile and make available to the Applicant documents containing the specific names and details of contractors and companies that have been engaged in the power sector since the return of democracy in 1999 to date, details, of specific projects and the amounts that have been paid to the contracts and companies, details on the level of implementation of electricity projects and their specific locations across the country and to publish widely including on a dedicated website, any such information. “An order directing and/or compelling the Respondent to compile and make available to the Applicant documents and information containing the specific names and details of contractors and companies that allegedly collected money for electricity projects but failed to execute any projects, starting from the return of democracy in 1999 to 2018 and to publish widely including on a dedicated website, any such information. “An order directing and/or compelling the Respondent to disclose if there is any ongoing investigation or prosecution of allegedly corrupt contractors and companies in the electricity sector”. No date has been fixed for the hearing of the suit.