A
Federal High Court in Lagos yesterday ordered First Bank of Nigeria
Plc to disclose details of the loan facility it granted the Nigerian
Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) for the 2013 purchase of two
bullet-proof BMW cars for the then Aviation Minister, Stella Oduah.
According to a statement, Justice Mohammed Yunusa issued the order
while delivering judgment in a suit instituted by Enough is Enough (EIE)
Nigeria, a non-governmental organization, against the bank over its
refusal to disclose the information to the organization following an
application it made under the Freedom of Information Act on October 30,
2013.
The judgment is EIE’s second judicial
victory in the matter as it obtained a similar order in March 2015
directing Coscharis Motors Limited to disclose details of the
transaction. A third suit instituted by EIE against the NCAA is
pending.
In the suit filed on behalf of EIE on January 9, 2014
by Mr. Ayodeji Acquah of Media Rights Agenda’s Network of Freedom of
Information Lawyers, the group prayed the court for the following
reliefs:
A declaration that the failure and/or refusal of the
bank to grant access to or make available to EIE the information it
requested in its letter dated October 30, 2013 amounts to wrongful
denial of access to information under Section 7(5) of the FOI Act; and
A declaration that the failure and/or refusal by the bank to give EIE a
written notice that access to all or part of the information requested
would not be granted and stating reasons for the denial and the section
of the FOI Act upon which the bank relied to deny EIE access to the
information it requested amounts to a flagrant violation of Section
4(b), 7(1), (2), and (3) of the FOI Act and is therefore wrongful;
Although
the bank was said to have claimed at the hearing of the suit that as a
private company, it is not covered by the FOI Act, Justice Yunusa noted
that the bank did not deny EIE’s claim that it (the bank) collects
levies and taxes on behalf of various governments and government
institutions and is therefore a private company performing public
functions within the meaning of the Act. The judge held that going by
the provisions of Sections 2(7) and 31 of the FOI Act, the bank is
covered by the Act.
Justice Yunusa ruled that Sections 1(3) and
20 of the FOI Act give EIE the right to apply to the court to compel the
bank to disclose the information that it applied for but which was
denied, observing that the bank did not give any reason for its refusal
to disclose the information requested by the organization.
Credit: Nigerian Guardian
No comments:
Post a Comment