Justice Evoh Chukwu of an Abuja Federal High Court was today urged by the Kano State Government to compel the Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to furnish it with information relating to deductions from its allocations including that of the local governments for the Petroleum Support Fund.
The Kano State government had through its suit suggested that the defendants had been deducting money from the funds accruable to it and its Local Governments, but never disclosed the amount deducted between 2005 and 2014.
The court however granted an ex-parte application argued by lawyer to the state government, Mrs. Victoria Awomolo (SAN), which had earlier prayed the court for leave to properly sue the respondents for their refusal to avail the state government the information on the deduction.
According to Justice Chukwu, "The applicant was at liberty to bring an action for judicial review of the respondents’ conduct, refusing information about the total amount of deductions made from allocations accruing to the applicant state and its local governments between 2005 and 2014 in favour of the Petroleum Support Fund as sought to be obtained by the applicant."
The Kano State government had specifically in its supporting affidavit to its ex-parte application stated that its officials had written to the PPPRA on April 11, 2014, demanding the details of the deductions.
The applicant further stated that it resorted to filing the suit under the Freedom of Information Act, 2011 following the respondents’ refusal to make the information available to it when it requested for it through the means provided by the law.
It maintained that Section 20 of the FoI Act allowed it to ask the court to review the denial of its request made under the Act, and make the necessary declarations and orders.
Aside the Finance Minister, other defendants in the suit includes: The Ministry of Finance and the Petroleum Product Pricing Regulatory Agency.
The matter has been adjourned till July 21 for hearing of the applicant’s substantive application.
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