Posted by President Muhammadu Buhari is being sued by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) for “the failure to fully scrutinize spending on all social safety nets and poverty alleviation programmes and projects completed between 2015 and 2022.”
Abubakar Malami, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, has been added to the lawsuit as a respondent.
133 million Nigerians are poor, according to a new report by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, despite the federal government allegedly spending N500 billion year on “social investment programs.” Children make up half of the poor population in Nigeria.
SERAP is also requesting that the court “direct and compel Buhari to make sure that suspected perpetrators of mismanagement of public funds meant to take care of the poor face prosecution, as any stolen public funds are recovered” in the lawsuit FHC/ABJ/CS/2357/2022 that was filed on Friday at the Federal High Court in Abuja.
The organization claimed in the lawsuit that “Nigerians have a right to be free from poverty,” and that “allegations of corruption in social safety nets and poverty reduction programs pose both indirect and direct challenges to human rights and contribute to extreme poverty in the country.”
SERAP’s attorneys, Kolawole Oluwadare, Kehinde Oyewumi, and Blessing Ogwuche, filed the lawsuit on the organization’s behalf.
A time for the lawsuit’s hearing has not yet been set, though.