Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has called on President Bola Tinubu to investigate how the Ecological Funds collected by the Borno State government since 2001 were spent.
SERAP is specifically asking President Tinubu to mandate the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) and appropriate anti-corruption agencies to investigate the Ecological Fund and the N816 million collected by the state between January 2024 and June 2024.
The civil society organisation made the demands in an open letter dated September 21, 2024, signed by its deputy director, Kolawole Oluwadare.
It also urged the President to direct Fagbemi and the anti-corruption agencies to urgently identify and ensure access to justice and effective remedies to affected victims in Borno State.
SERAP also urged him to direct the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, to work with appropriate anti-corruption agencies to track and monitor the spending of the Ecological Fund by the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, 36 state governors, the 774 local government areas, as well as all emergency management agencies across the country funded through the Fund.
The organisation maintained that suspected perpetrators of allegations of corruption and mismanagement of ecological funds should face prosecution as appropriate if there is sufficient admissible evidence, and any proceeds of corruption should be fully recovered.
SERAP insisted that the government has a legal obligation to address the prevalence of flooding across the country and its effect on people and to ensure that the money meant to stop the floods is not lost to corruption.
The organisation noted that while a governor may enjoy immunity from arrest and prosecution, the Borno government does not enjoy immunity from investigation. Any criminal allegation against a sitting governor should be investigated when the governor leaves office and loses immunity.
It also stated that the findings of such an investigation can also be the basis for initiating impeachment proceedings against the governor.
SERAP said, “There is a legitimate public interest in ensuring justice for the victims of Borno‘s flood victims, and accountability for the spending of the monthly ecological funds collected by the state through the Federal Account Allocation Committee [FAAC].
“Although ecological funds are shared across the three tiers of government and emergency management agencies, the funds are managed and supervised by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.
“The devastation in Borno highlights your government‘s obligation to promote and ensure transparency and accountability in the spending of ecological funds by all tiers of government and emergency management agencies.
“SERAP notes that Borno state receives millions of naira monthly through the Federal Allocation Committee as shares from the Ecological Fund.
“Other states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, also monthly receive funds from the Ecological Fund. According to reports, trillions of naira have over the years been budgeted through the ecological fund to tackle floods and other environmental problems.
“SERAP is concerned that the ecological funds collected by Borno state over the years may have been diverted, mismanaged, or unaccounted.
“SERAP is also concerned about reports that the funds released to the states for ecological projects are characterised by mismanagement, diversion of funds, substandard and abandoned projects fully paid for.
“Ecological funds have also been allegedly spent for other purposes such as election campaigns and political patronage.
“We would be grateful if the recommended measures are taken within seven days of the receipt and publication of this letter. If we have not heard from you by then, SERAP shall consider appropriate legal actions to compel your government to comply with our request in the public interest.
“Your government has legal obligations to protect the rights of flood victims in Borno and elsewhere in the country, including the responsibility to ensure they receive adequate food, shelter, safe drinking water, access to sanitation and other essential aid.
“Your government must use all means available to it to prevent and address the threats to human rights that result from climate change and to provide access to remedies when these rights are violated.
“According to reports, the recent floods in Borno started when a dam [the Alau Dam in Maiduguri] burst its walls following heavy rainfall. The floods have reportedly killed more than 30 people.
“About one million people have been affected, most of whom are housed in camps without food and clean water. According to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), 229 people have been killed by floods in Nigeria since the start of the year. The worst flooding in recent times killed 600 people in 2022.
“According to a four-year audit of the Ecological Fund Office carried out by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, NEITI, the total amount allocated and received by the fund from December 2011 to November 2016 was N277 billion.“
It said, the operations of the Fund from 2012 to 2016 reportedly showed that some of the disbursements were not utilised for the purpose for which it was established, adding that during these periods, N74,170,932,645.20 was released to state governments to solve ecological problems in their states.
SERAP noted that the Ecological Fund was established in 1981 to respond to and address severe ecological problems such as soil erosion, flooding, drought, desertification, oil spillage, general environmental pollution, and related issues, as well as prevent suffering and possible death from these natural disasters.
It said as the floods in Borno State have shown, the lack of transparency and accountability in the management of ecological funds by states and the resulting human costs directly threaten fundamental human rights – rights to life, to food, to a place to live and work, „rights that your government must protect.“
“Nigerian Constitution 1999 [as amended] and the human rights and anti-corruption treaties to which the country is a state party impose obligations on your government to probe and prosecute allegations of corruption in the spending of Ecological Fund, and to ensure access to justice and effective remedies for victims of flooding.
“Corruption and mismanagement of the fund have caused negative human health impacts and rendered impoverished citizens incapable of satisfying their minimum survival needs.
“The failure of successive governments and high-ranking government officials to prevent corruption in the spending of Ecological Fund has hugely contributed to the inability of authorities at all levels to address ecological challenges and the impact of flooding across the country,“ SERAP stated.
