SERAP Drags FG To Over ‘Failed’ Chinese $460m Abuja CCTV Project.

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has filed a lawsuit against the Federal Government over an alleged failure to “disclose information on the total amount of money paid to contractors from the $460 million loan obtained in 2010 from China.

The sum was said to have been obtained to fund the Abuja Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) project, which SERAP described as a failure.

It is also suing the government for its alleged failure to name the contractors involved and is asking them to explain why they have continued to re-pay the loan, among other things.

SERAP is also seeking “an order of mandamus to direct and compel the Minister of Finance to disclose whether the sum of N1.5 billion Naira paid in 2010 for the failed project meant to construct the headquarters of the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) was part of another loan obtained from China.

an order of mandamus to direct and compel the Minister of Finance to disclose whether the sum of N1.5 billion Naira paid in 2010 for the failed project meant to construct the headquarters of the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) was part of another loan obtained from China, and to clarify further whether the sum of N1.5 billion Naira mobilsation fee for the construction of the Headquarters of the CCB in Abuja was part of another loan from China.”

The suit followed SERAP’s Freedom of Information (FoI) request dated 25 October 2019 to Ahmed, expressing: “concern that Nigerians are being made to pay for the Chinese loans for failed and abandoned projects, and for which they have not benefited in any way, shape or form.”