A civil society group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has sent a Freedom of Information Act request to the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, urging her to “urgently provide information about spending of the alleged missing N30 trillion, which represents some accruable income to the Federal Government in the past four years.”

SERAP’s request followed disclosure by the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, that over N30 trillion had been missing, or stolen, or unaccounted for, or simply mismanaged, under the minister’s watch.

The organisation threatened to “take all appropriate legal actions under the Freedom of Information Act to compel” the minister to comply with the request if “the information is not provided to us within 14 days of the receipt and/or publication of this letter.”

In the letter of request dated February 2, 2015 by SERAP’s Executive Director, Mr Adetokunbo Mumuni, the organisation, said: “As trustee of public funds, SERAP contends that your ministry has a legal duty to render account on the missing N30 trillion to the beneficiaries (Nigerians) of the trust, if and when called upon to do so.

“As a key agency of government, the Ministry of Finance has a sacred duty to ensure that the country’s resources and wealth are used solely to fulfil the basic economic and social rights of Nigerians and achieve the country’s overall socio-economic development. This implies providing strong leadership in the efforts to curb public sector corruption, and to refer to appropriate anti-corruption agencies any allegation of corruption in which any agency of government may be involved or official of your Ministry may be complicit.

“We consider this a serious allegation that requires your immediate and urgent clarifications. If true, such allegation will clearly amount to a fundamental breach of national anticorruption laws and the country’s international anticorruption obligations and commitments including under the United Nations Convention against Corruption to which Nigeria is a state party.”