Two
non-governmental organisations, Media Rights Agenda, MRA, and Public and
Private Development Centre, PPDC, have filed a suit at the Federal High Court
in Lagos asking the court to compel the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority,
NCAA, to release to them the procurement records for the controversial purchase
of two bullet proof cars for Aviation Minister, Stella Oduah.
In the suit filed
on their behalf by Ayodeji Acquah, under the Freedom of Information Act, the
groups also asked the court to compel the Attorney-General of the Federation to
initiate criminal proceedings against the NCAA for the offence of
"wrongful denial of access to information" under Section 7(5) of the
FOI Act.
According to a
statement by the Legal Officer of Media Rights, Omolola Adeoya, the groups
wrote two joint letters to NCAA Director General, Folayele Akinkuotu, on
October 21, asking for detailed information on the procurement records for the
purchase by the NCAA of two BMW 760 LiHSS vehicles with chassis numbers
WBAHP41050DW68032 and WBAHP41010DW68044.
They asked for
copies of the procurement and contract records for the purchase of the cars;
including evidence of budgetary allocation for the procurement process; the
procurement plan for the purchase; evidence of advertisements of the planned
purchase in various newspapers, NCAA website, the Procurement Journal,
international publications, etc., inviting prospective bidders to submit bids
for the procurement; and a list of all bids tendered for the procurement from
when it was advertised till the close of the bid; among other documents.
However, in a
four-page reply dated November 11, 2013 and signed on behalf of the
Director-General by NCAA's Legal Adviser, E.D. Chukwuma, the Authority refused
to disclose the records, claiming that it was withholding the information based
on the exemptions in Sections 12 and 26 of the FOI Act.
In their suit
filed on December 6, MRA and PPDC asked the court to grant them leave to apply
for a judicial review of the NCAA decision under the FOI Act and to seek the
following reliefs:
- A declaration
that the failure and/or refusal by the NCAA to disclose or make available to
them the information they requested by their letters to the NCAA dated October
21, 2013 amounts to a violation of their rights of access to information,
established and guaranteed by Sections 1(1) and 4(a) of the FOI Act;
culled from Premium Times
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