Lagos – The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has sent a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to Babatunde Fashola, the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, urging him to “urgently provide information on 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.”
According to SERAP, former Nigeria’s vice president and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, reportedly blew the whistle on Channels TV when he said, contractors were given some contracts for power projects and were paid hundred percent upfront.
According to SERAP, Atiku said the money went down the drain. ‘Up till now, we are not holding the contractors responsible. People have collected money upfront one hundred percent and have disappeared and have not even done any work’.
In the FOI request dated January 4, 2019 and signed by SERAP senior legal adviser Bamisope Adeyanju, SERAP said: “The revelation by Alhaji Atiku is entirely consistent with SERAP’s recent report titled: From Darkness to Darkness: How Nigerians are Paying the Price for Corruption in the Electricity Sector, which also revealed how over N11 trillion meant to provide regular electricity supply was allegedly squandered by politicians and contractors under successive governments.”
The organization further: “By publishing the names of 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.
“Publishing the names will make it hard for contractors and companies to get away with complicity in grand corruption. If the requested information is not provided within 14 days of the receipt and/or publication of this letter, SERAP shall take all appropriate legal actions under the Freedom of Information Act to compel you to comply with our request.”
The FOI request read in part: “It is important to show that your office and indeed this administration would not shield or allow ingrained wrongdoing by contractors and companies in the power sector to 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.”
The post Power Sector: SERAP Charges Fashola To Publish Names Of Failed Contractors appeared first on Independent Newspapers Nigeria.
Source: Daily Independent
We appreciate you for reading our post, but we think it will be better you like our facebook fanpage and also follow us on twitter below.
Title :
Power Sector: SERAP Charges Fashola To Publish Names Of Failed Contractors
Description : Lagos – T he Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has sent a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to Babatunde Fashola...
Rating :
5