ABUJA, Federal Republic of Nigeria. (Report by Tunde Opeseitan) — A Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the National Assembly to provide within seven days, detailed information on the constituency projects of Senators and Honourable members of the House of Representatives nationwide.
Justice Abdul Kafarati, in a judgment delivered on Wednesday [April 8, 2015] ordered the National Assembly to provide details of every constituency earmarked for each constituency project between 2011 and 2013.
The judge also ordered the National Assembly to provide details of all budgetary allocations made in respect of each of the constituency projects nationwide.
Justice Kafarati further ordered that details of the state of each of the constituency project must equally be provided within seven days of the judgment, which was delivered on February 3, 2015. The judgment followed a Freedom of Information [FOI] suit filed against the Clerk of the National Assembly by Legal Defence and Assistance Project LTD/GTE.
The judge, however, turned down a prayer by the plaintiff (Legal Defence) asking that the National Assembly be compelled to provide details of all constituencies of the National Assembly.
According to the judge, the request ought to have been directed at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which created and delineated the constituencies.
The plaintiff had formulated two questions for the court’s determination which included whether by the provision of Freedom of Information Act, 2011, the defendant (Clerk of National Assembly) was not under the obligation to furnish the plaintiff with the information sought via its letter dated March 8, 2013 and received on April 26, 2013.
The suit was filed after the defendant had failed to make available the requested information.
In response, the defendant had urged the court to discountenance the suit, as the requested information was not within the personal knowledge of the Clark of the National Assembly, and that the Clark lacked the power to provide the said information.
In his judgment, Justice Kafarati relied on Section 2 of the FOi Act and held that it was not true, as contended that the said information was not within the knowledge of the defendant.
The court, however, declined to grant the prayer on details of all constituencies of the National Assembly.
