{"id":13915,"date":"2018-12-17T19:09:19","date_gmt":"2018-12-17T19:09:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=13915"},"modified":"2018-12-17T19:09:19","modified_gmt":"2018-12-17T19:09:19","slug":"buratai-must-account-for-spending-on-lafiya-dole-crocodile-smile-serap-eie-budgit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=13915","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Buratai must account for spending on Lafiya Dole, Crocodile Smile\u2019 \u2014 SERAP, EiE, BudgIT\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project<\/span>\u00a0(SERAP), Enough is Enough\u00a0<\/span>(EiE<\/span>),and BudgIT\u00a0<\/span>have sent\u00a0a joint\u00a0<\/span>Freedom of Information request\u00a0to Lt. General Tukur Yusuf Buratai, Chief of Army Staff<\/span>\u00a0of Nigeria,requesting him to\u00a0<\/span>use his good offices and leadership position to\u00a0<\/span>\u201curgently provide information on the 2015, 2016\u00a0<\/span>and\u00a02017 budget implementation reports of the Nigerian Army, including the amount<\/span>sreleased (financial implications) and expended in fiscal years 2015, 2016\u00a0<\/span>and2017 for the various operations\u00a0<\/span>the Armycarried out<\/span>.\u201d<\/div>\n
\n
\nThe groups also urged Mr Buratai to\u00a0<\/span>furnish them with \u201c<\/span>the amount<\/span>s\u00a0released (financial implications) and expended in fiscal years 2015, 2016 and 2017 for:\u00a0<\/b>Operation Lafiya Dole, Operation Safe Haven, Operation Python Dance, Operation Ruwan Wuta, Operation Delta Safe, Operation Mesa, Operation Harbin Kunama, Operation Awatse, Operation Tsera Teku and Operation Crocodile Smile.<\/span>\u201d
\nIn the FOI request sent last week and signed by\u00a0Bamisope Adeyanju of SERAP<\/span>,\u00a0Seun Akinyemi of EiE\u00a0<\/span>and\u00a0Atiku Samuel of<\/span>BudgIT,\u00a0<\/span>the groups said: \u201cTransparency of the budget process and its implementation is an essential condition to achieve good governance. The reports<\/span>, if\u00a0provided<\/span>\u00a0and published, will shed light on military spending and put to rest\u00a0<\/span>once and for all\u00a0the\u00a0<\/span>perceived lack of transparency and accountability in the spending of military budgets, which has been a subject of intense public debate<\/span>\u00a0and concern.\u201d<\/span>
\nThe groups said: \u201cIf the requested information is not provided within 14 days of the receipt and\/or publication of this letter,\u00a0<\/span>our\u00a0organizations shall take all appropriate legal action under the Freedom of Information Act to compel<\/span>\u00a0you to comply with our request.\u201d
\nAccording to the groups: \u201cseveral billions of naira allocated to the military to defend the country\u00a0<\/span>and protect its people\u00a0have neither contributed to improving the ability of Nigerian soldiers to fight Boko Haram and other armed groups nor provided the much-needed security especially for Nigerians in the North-east of the country.\u201d<\/span>
\nThe FOI request read in part:\u00a0\u201c<\/span>The information being requested does not come within the purview of the types of information exempted from disclosure by the provisions of the FOI Act. The information requested for, apart from not being exempted from disclosure under the FOI Act, would serve the national interest,<\/span>public\u00a0welfare,\u00a0<\/span>public interest and peace, human rights, good governance, transparency and accountability.<\/span>\u201d
\n\u201cBy\u00a0<\/span>virtue of\u00a0Section 1(1) of the Freedom of Information Act,\u00a0<\/b>2011,\u00a0<\/span>we\u00a0are entitled as of right to request for or gain access to information, including information on\u00a0<\/span>2015, 2016\u00a0<\/span>and\u00a02017 budget implementation reports of the Nigerian Army, and the amount<\/span>s\u00a0released (financial implications) and expended in fiscal years 2015, 2016 and 2017 for\u00a0<\/b>the various operations listed<\/span>,\u00a0which ha<\/span>ve\u00a0yielded no tangible result.\u201d<\/span>
\n\u201cAlso, by<\/span>\u00a0virtue of Section 4(a) of the FOI Act, when a person makes a request for information from a public official, institution or agency, the public official, institution or\u00a0<\/span>a<\/span>gency 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.<\/span>
\nCourtesy www. serap-nigeria.org<\/strong>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project\u00a0(SERAP), Enough is Enough\u00a0(EiE),and BudgIT\u00a0have sent\u00a0a joint\u00a0Freedom of Information request\u00a0to Lt. General Tukur Yusuf Buratai, Chief of Army Staff\u00a0of Nigeria,requesting him to\u00a0use his good offices and leadership position to\u00a0\u201curgently provide information on the 2015, 2016\u00a0and\u00a02017 budget implementation reports of the Nigerian Army, including the amountsreleased (financial implications) and expended in fiscal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":9897,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13915\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}