BY  EGUFE YAFUGBORHI

WARRI—An Edo State High Court sitting in Benin, has ordered the state Agency for Control of HIV/AIDS, SACA, to make its financial statements available to a civil society group, Foundation for Good Governance and Social Change, FGGSC.

The order of court was sequel to an application by FGGSC, brought pursuant to the Freedom of Information, FOI, Law by the group.

FGGSC had asked the court to compel the Edo SACA to disclose information on funding received including those from non-governmental organizations, donors and how the funds were being disbursed, to whom it is being made available and other issues concerning transparency and accountability in the running of the SACA.

The suit followed SACA’s refusal to honour the complainant’s letter asking the agency to furnish it (FGGSC) with the required information.
Edo State Solicitor General and Permanent Secretary of the state Ministry of Justice, Mr. Oluwole Iyamu who led the defence team, had argued that the plaintiff could not invoke the provisions of the FOI Law in forcing the demanded information from SACA on grounds that the law had not been domesticated in Edo State.

Prest Aigbokhan, lead counsel for FGGSC, countered, contending that it does not require any domestication because the Freedom of Information Law flows from the right to information, right to be heard and make public demands on public agencies for information guaranteed by the constitution.

Trial judge, Justice Idada Ikpomwen, who granted the prayers sought by the plaintiff, gave SACA 14 days to disclose all the information it had refused to divulge. The court awarded N100,000  as cost in FGGSC favour.
“This is victory for Nigeria. It shows that laws are not just made, but made to be implemented and this one will be enforced,” Mr Austin Osakwe, Executive Director, FGGSC, said while reacting to the judgment.