SERAP to sue Okonjo-Iweala over ‘missing N30tn’

A civil society group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, has asked the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to tell Nigerians the whereabouts of the N30tn alleged to have gone missing under her watch.

The group, in a letter to the minister on Monday, asked her to, within 14 days, account for the allegedly missing sum or face a legal action.

SERAP’s demand followed the allegation by a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, that not less than N30tn “had been missing or stolen or unaccounted for, or simply mismanaged” under Okonjo-Iweala’s watch as the Minister of Finance.

In the letter signed by its Executive Director, Adetokunbo Mumuni, SERAP said Nigerians had a right to know as the said money “represented some accrueable income to the Federal Government in the past four years.”

It said in line with the Freedom of Information Act, “your ministry has a legal duty to render account on the missing N30tn to the beneficiaries (Nigerians) of the trust, if and when called upon to do so.”

The group said the allegation levelled by Soludo called for concern because public stealing or mismanagement of public funds have been the reason for the economic hardship facing the Nigerian masses.

It added that as a key agency of the government, the Ministry of Finance had the duty to ensure that the country’s resources and wealth were only used to fulfil the basic economic and social rights of all Nigerians.