In the suit filed under the Freedom of Information Act 2011, SERAP also wants the court to declare whether by virtue of the provision of section 4(a) of the Act, the Defendants are under an obligation to provide the Plaintiff with the information requested for.
According to SERAP, it filed the suit following the refusal of the PDP national chairman, Alhaji Ahmadu Adamu Mu’azu and APC national chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun to reply Freedom of Information requests dated 18th November, 2014.
The originating summons against the PDP and APC were brought pursuant to section 4(a) of the Freedom of Information Act, and signed by SERAP senior staff attorney, Olukayode Majekodunmi.
The plaintiff is arguing that under the FOI Act, “Nigerians have the right to know about spending by their political parties especially the major parties with a strong possibility to assume government in the future. Citizens should be able to examine financial transactions of parties and be certain that politicians are working for their voters, not their benefactors.”
The plaintiff also argued that both the APC and PDP “cannot take the position that the FOI Act does not apply to them because to do so will seriously undermine citizens’ trust in their political parties and lack of trust will inevitably destroy confidence in the system and decrease citizens’ interest and participation in democratic processes.”
The plaintiff also said, “Without free and fair elections, there can be no democracy. However, elections are only one part of the democratic process, and a fair and effective electoral system must be founded in an adequate democratic infrastructure and is the responsibility of political leaders.”
Earlier in its FOI requests, the plaintiff had expressed “serious concerns about the risks of corruption during electoral campaigns for the February 2015 general elections, especially the role of money in politics and the persistent failure generally to comply with national and international law on political party finance.”
SERAP also wants a declaration that by virtue of the provisions of Section 4 (a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2011, the Defendants are under a binding legal obligation to provide the Plaintiff with up-to-date information relating to the following:
“Information about the spending and sources of income derived from federal, state and other institutions, agencies or persons for the campaigns and other operations of the Defendants related to the February 2015 elections.
“The total amounts that have been spent and the anticipated spending and the sources of any such spending related to the February 2015 general elections.
“Total contributions received by the Defendants for or on behalf of their Presidential candidate and candidates for the governorship elections and the sources of any such contributions.
According to the plaintiff, “Releasing the information will help to address the perception among the citizens that the major political parties in the countries are less transparent and accountable. The lack of transparency and accountability in political finance is seriously undermining the legitimacy and credibility of the democratic and electoral processes, and invariably contributing to denying the citizens the right to effective participation in their own government.”
No comments:
Post a Comment