Lagos LCDA chairperson sued for breaching FOI Act

The chairman of Orile-Agege local council development area, Jubril Abdulkareem, has been sued for failing to comply with provisions of the Freedom of Information Act.

The Attorney General of Lagos State, Ade Ipaye, is also joined in the suit which will be heard on September 26 before a Federal High Court Judge, S. Adah.

The suit, with number FHC/IKJ/CS/96/2012, was filed by lawyer, Adebayo Lawanson, on behalf of a politician and human rights activist resident in the council area, Niyi Raheem.

According to court documents obtained by Daily Times, Lawanson had, on behalf of Raheem, written to the council chairman requesting the following: the records and information of all activities, operations and business; details of programmes and functions of each division, branch, and department of the local government; documents containing information relating to the receipt or expenditure of the local government from 2008 to 2012; documents containing the names, salaries, titles, and dates of employment of all employees and officers of the local government; and list of files containing grants, contracts, licences, and agreements the local government might have entered into.

The letter, dated April 25, was not attended to by the local government authorities within the 14-day period stated in the letter, prompting Lawanson to seek an order to apply for judicial review under the FOI Act, which the court granted.

According to Raheem’s affidavit, since filing the suit on June 21, the local government authorities “has so far failed, refused, and/or neglected to provide the Plaintiff/Applicants with the details of the information requested.”

Citing Section 4(a) of the FOI Act, he said “when a person makes a request for information from a public official, institution, or agency, the public official, institution or agency to whom the application is directed is under a binding legal obligation to provide the applicant with the information requested for, except as otherwise provided by the Act, within 7 days after the application is received.”