Exclusive:Group Writes Lagos Council Chairman To Explain How 400 Million Empowerment Program Was Expended
A pressure group, Vote For Service Initiative has written to the Chairman of Ifako-Ijaiye local government, Usman Akanbi Hamzat to furnish it with the details of empowerment programmes embarked upon by the council area effective from 2021 when he was sworn-in.
The group in a letter, a copy of which was sighted by Newsnowonline and signed by its president, Comrade Adeola Samuel and legal adviser, Comrade Charles Afolabi relied on the freedom of information act that the names, addresses and phone numbers of the beneficiaries should be made available otherwise it will file an action in court to compel the chairman to release it.
According to the group, the recent empowerment program where N400 million was allegedly spent ought to be scrutinised.
The letter read in parts; “And of particular interest are the ones done recently to the effect of given instruments of work to artisans as well as the issuance of POS with startup capital to the sum of N2m to each beneficiaries within the local government which amounted to N400m in total.
“Please take notice of Section 1 (2) and (3) in the treatment of this application as well as 4 (7) all of freedom of information Act 2011 before responding.
“Also note that this application response is expected within 7 working days of receipt pursuant to Section 4 (1) which says “where information is applied for under this Act the public institution to which the application is made shall subject to Section 6,7 and 8 of this Act within 7 days after the application is received.”
(a) Make the information available to the applicant. interalia
It’s also of important that your office take cognisance of Section (7) (1) (5) of this “Act as the applicant won’t hesitate the use of the provisions before the court of competent jurisdiction to obtain order of mandamus for compliance.”
The group also copied the governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu and commissioner for local government and chieftaincy affairs for action.
