Ifeanyi Ibe
The Delta State Governor, Sheriff Oborevwori, has been ordered to render a full account of over ₦200 billion from the Universal Basic Education Commission Fund collected and spent by the immediate past governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa.
The disclosure is to also cover “budgetary allocations and actual spending by the Okowa government between 2015-2019.”
This order was made by Justice Daniel Osiagor of the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos in a judgement dated July 17. The order is at the instance of a suit filed by the Socioeconomic Rights Project (SERAP) over seven-year-old Success Adegor who was sent home over her parents’ inability to pay a school levy of N900.
The non-governmental organisation had filed the suit with the number: FHC/L/CS/803/2019. SERAP Seeks Accountability Of N881bn By 367 MDAs
The Honourable Justice Daniel Osiagor, in his judgment, ordered the Delta State Governor, Sheriff Oborevwori, to “disclose details of budgetary allocations and actual spending by the Okowa government between 2015 and 2019.”
The Justice held that “SERAP has the cognizable legal right to inquire and know the way and manner public institutions manage public funds. I must say, that every citizen has a duty to demand transparency and accountability in the governance of public institutions.”
In lieu of that, Justice Osiagor ordered the Delta State government to “disclose how the Okowa government spent over ₦7.28 billion received from UBEC between 2015 and 2017, and ₦213 billion received from the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee in 2018, at an average of ₦17.8 billion monthly.”
PBA recalls that there was a viral video showing little Success Adegor of Okotie-Eboh Primary School 1, Sapele Local Government Area, in a display of frustration over an alleged illegal examination levy for which she was sent home. In reaction, the Delta State Commissioner for Education, Mr Chiedu Ebie, who visited the school to confirm the incident, suspended the headmistress, Mrs Veronica Igbigwe, for collecting such an unauthorised levy.
