SERAP Sues Tinubu Government Over Hidden NDDC Forensic Audit Report

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), alongside four Nigerian citizens, has dragged the administration of President Bola Tinubu before the ECOWAS Court for allegedly refusing to publish the forensic audit report of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

The lawsuit was disclosed in a statement on Sunday by SERAP’s Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, who noted that the audit had implicated several high-profile politicians and officials in the alleged mismanagement of a staggering N6 trillion between 2001 and 2019.

According to the statement, “The Nigerian government has violated our right to know the truth about the corruption allegations documented in the NDDC forensic report. The obstruction of the publication of the report is perpetrating impunity and the cover-up of the allegations documented in the report.”

It also referenced recent claims by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, that the wife of a former minister had received N48 billion within a single year “to train Niger Delta women.”

The plaintiffs—Prince Taiwo Aiyedatiwa, Chief Jude Igbogifurotogu Pulemote, Ben Omietimi Tariye, and Princess Elizabeth Egbe—filed the suit last Friday before the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice in Abuja. The case is marked ECW/CCJ/APP/35/25.

They are asking the court to declare that the government’s failure to release the audit report “amounts to a fundamental breach of the country’s international human rights obligations.”

The suit also seeks “an order directing and compelling the Nigerian government to publish and ensure access to information to the NDDC forensic report which has been submitted to the government but remains shrouded in secrecy,” and “an order directing and compelling the Nigerian government to adopt and ensure effective measures to address transparency and accountability gaps in the spending of public funds budgeted for the NDDC.”

They further argued, “Implicit in freedom of expression is the public’s right to open access to information and to know what governments are doing on their behalf, without which truth would languish and people’s participation in government would remain fragmented and illusory.”

The plaintiffs maintained that the refusal to publish the report or explain the reason for its secrecy violates Nigeria’s obligation to guarantee access to information, a key component of democratic accountability.

Their legal team—Kolawole Oluwadare, Kehinde Oyewumi, and Andrew Nwankwo—emphasized that “There is an overriding public interest in the publication and disclosure of the NDDC forensic report.”

It will be recalled that in 2019, then-President Muhammadu Buhari ordered the forensic audit of the NDDC in response to mounting allegations of large-scale corruption within the agency.