Chukwudi Nweje
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has sued the Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Brigadier-General Sule Kazaure and the NYSC for allegedly failing to provide “specific details and documents on the exemption certificate granted to the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun.”
The organisation yesterday dragged the NYSC boss and the Corps before the Federal High Court, Ikoyi, Lagos, for failing to provide details of the exemption certificate issued to the Finance minister within seven days as it had demanded, under a Freedom of Information (FoI) act request filed on August 2, 2018.
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In the suit number FHC/L/CS/1369/18, filed on August 15, SERAP is seeking “an order for leave to apply for judicial review and an order of mandamus directing and/or compelling Kazaure and the NYSC to urgently provide specific documents and information on Mrs. Kemi Adeosun’s application to the NYSC for exemption, and to publish widely, including on a dedicated and on the NYSC website, any such information.”
The suit filed by SERAP counsel, Ms. Bamisope Adeyanju, on behalf of SERAP, is seeking: “A declaration that the failure of the Respondents to provide the Applicant with specific documents and information on Mrs Kemi Adeosun’s application to it, for NYSC exemption, is unlawful and amounts to a breach of the Respondents’ responsibility/obligation, under the Freedom of Information Act 2011.
The organisation is also seeking; “An order of mandamus directing and/or compelling the Respondents to urgently provide the Applicant with specific documents and information on the procedure under the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Act, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, to “apply” for NYSC exemption; whether an authorised official of the NYSC actually issued an exemption certificate to Mrs. Kemi Adeosun; and, if NYSC did issue the NYSC Exemption Certificate, the circumstances and the provisions of the NYSC Act under which the Exemption Certificate was granted; and to publish widely including on a dedicated website and on the NYSC website, any such information.”