Advise Buhari to obey judgment on electricity contracts, SERAP tells Malami

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abukabar Malami to advise President Muhammadu Buhari to obey judgement on electricity contractors since 1999.

SERAP also charged Malami to use his “special role as the country’s chief law officer” to persuade the President to fully and effectively enforce the judgment by ordering the release of details of payments as they relate to the contracts.

Justice Chuka Obiozor, sitting at the Federal High Court, Lagos, had in July delivered a judgment in a Freedom of Information (FoI) suit marked FHC/L/CS/105/19, brought by SERAP, ordering the Federal Government to disclose and publish names of companies and whereabouts of contractors paid by successive governments to carry out electricity projects but failed to execute the projects.”

In an open letter dated September 13, 2019 and signed by SERAP’s Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, the organisation said: “The enforcement of this judgment will be a special moment for Federal Government’s anti-corruption crusade and sovereignty of rule of law, as it would go a long way in protecting the integrity of the nation’s legal system.

“We urge you to advise and persuade President Buhari and Minister of Power, Sale Mamman, to begin to take steps that will ensure full enforcement of the judgment.”

SERAP said such action would show Federal Government’s commitment to the rule of law and contribute to addressing corruption in the country’s power sector.

“It will show that you are not just Buhari’s lawyer, but also a defender of the Nigerian Constitution, rule of law and public interest in government, something Justice Obiozor’s judgment seeks to serve,” SERAP stated.

The group stressed that it was emphatically the Attorney General’s constitutional duty to advise government on the enforcement of judicial decisions, adding it was important to do so if power sector contractors and companies were not to continue to evade justice for their alleged corruption.

“Our democracy needs the courts so that public officials and private actors including contractors can be held accountable for any infraction of Nigerian anti-corruption laws and international commitments.

“Constitutionalism and the rule of law are not in conflict with democracy; rather, they are essential to it,” it stated.