SAN FRANCISCO, July 08, (THEWILL) – The Kano State Government has filed a suit at the Federal High Court Abuja seeking to compel the Minister of Finance, Dr. Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Ministry of Finance and the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) to make available to it data relating to the deductions from its allocations and those of its local governments for the Petroleum Support Fund.
Mrs. V. O. Awomolo (SAN) filed the suit before Justice Evoh Chukwu on behalf of Kano State.
Kano accused the respondents of deliberately withholding information on the deductions even though it had pressed them for information on it without success.
It said it wrote the PPPRA on 11 April, 2014, on the issue adding that the deductions from the monies accruable to it and its local governments have been ongoing since 2005.
Kano State said that it had sought the information through due process, but was denied by the respondents and was therefore compelled to come under the Freedom of Information Act, 2011.
It argued that Section 20 of the FOI Act allowed the state to ask the court to review the denial of its request made under the Act, and make the necessary declarations and orders.
Justice Evoh Chukwu Tuesday granted the ex-parte application for leave to apply for an order for judicial review of the respondents’ refusal to avail the applicant information about the deductions.
Ruling, Justice Chukwu granted leave to the applicant “to bring an action for judicial review of the respondents’ conduct, refusing information about the total amount of deductions made from allocations accruing to the applicant’s state and its local governments between 2005 and 2014 in favour of the Petroleum Support Fund as sought to be obtained by the applicant.”
Hearing of the substantive application has been slated for July 21, 2014.
