A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has ordered the administration of the immediate past Governor of Delta State, Ifeanyi Okowa to account for the spending over N200bn public funds collected from the Universal Basic Education Commission, (UBEC).
The judgement followed a suit filed by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP).
The Presiding Judge, Justice Daniel Osiagor directed the Delta State Governor Sheriff Oborevwori to disclose details of budgetary allocations and actual spending by the Okowa government between 2015 and 2019 including specific projects carried out and their locations to improve primary education in Delta State.
The Judge ordered the Delta State government to state how the Okowa government spent over N7.28 billion received from UBEC between 2015 and 2017, and N213 billion received from the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) in 2018.
Justice Osiagor also ordered the government to state details of the primary schools that have benefited from the projects carried out and information on indirect costs, including uniforms, exercise books, and transport costs to students and their parents.
The Judge held that, SERAP has the legal right to inquire and know the way public institutions manage public funds and urged every citizen to demand transparency and accountability in governance.
SERAP’s suit followed the case of seven year-old Success Adegor, who was sent home because her parents could not pay the illegal school fee/levy of N900, and the poor-quality of her Okotie-Eboh Primary School 1.
Veteran journalist and recipient of A.B.C Yola, Reporter of the Year Award (1997), Hassan Umar Shallpella, works with WAP as a Regional Correspondence. He was trained at Institute of Mass Communication and Technology Jos and Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, Training School Lagos.He was a News desk Editor and a Correspondent at the Punch newspaper and till 2019, was the Deputy Editor ofThe Scope newspaper.
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