A lawsuit by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), reported by Premium Times, asks West Africa’s regional court to examine Nigeria’s oversight of about ₦78.8 billion in social-protection spending for vulnerable households.
Premium Times reported Oct. 25, citing the filing, that the lawsuit was filed in Abuja last week. It is numbered ECW/CCJ/APP/42/26; the report did not give an exact filing date. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Community Court of Justice is being asked to declare that the government failed to administer public funds lawfully. The remedies described in the report include orders for financial accounting, beneficiary verification, audits and oversight before social-protection funds are administered or disbursed. These are requests, not court findings.
The case follows audit concerns SERAP had already raised. In a Sept. 6 statement, the group said the Auditor-General of the Federation’s 2024 report questioned ₦76.24 billion associated with the National Cash Transfer Office and ₦2.55 billion associated with the National Social Safety Nets Coordinating Office. SERAP described the combined spending as questionable or unaccounted for.
SERAP also cited ₦33.751 billion in electronic transfers recorded for 3,295,207 households or beneficiaries across 35 states in 2023. It said the payment vouchers lacked complete recipient details and auditors did not receive a REMITA statement needed to compare the transfers with the National Social Register and National Beneficiary Register. The group also cited payments made without prepayment audits and other expenditures it described as unsupported. These record concerns do not establish that funds were diverted or that households missed payments.
SERAP says the programs are intended to help poor and vulnerable households. In a Sept. 5 letter, it asked President Bola Tinubu to account for the spending and said it could pursue legal action, including at the ECOWAS court, if action was not taken within seven days.
