By Brave Dickson
A Federal High Court presided over by Justice James Kolawole Omotosho in Port Harcourt has reserved October 2, 2019 to deliver judgment on a Freedom of Information Act suit brought by Mr Mark Lenu against the Niger Delta Development Commission.
The plaintiff (Mr Mark Lenu) had instituted a legal action against NDDC (defendant) following what the plaintiff described as refusal by the defendant to grant him access to certain information he requested from the defendant.
When the matter came up for hearing, lawyer to the plaintiff, Barr Kingdom Chukwuezie who viewed the excuses of the counsel to NDDC, Barr Tonye Ibisiki as frivolous urged the court to enter judgment in the plaintiff’s favour against the defendant.
NDDC lawyer had told the court that “the information contained in the request of the applicant (plaintiff) never commenced by the defendant, adding that at a point it was cancelled, hence the defendant does not have such information at its disposal.”
In a similar suit, the court had struck out an action brought by Mr Mark Lenu against the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) following an application made by Mr Lenu before the court to withdraw the suit on grounds of compliance.
Shortly after the plaintiff instituted legal proceedings against HYPREP, the public institution forwarded all the information requested by the plaintiff to him.
As a result of such substantial compliance, the plaintiff notified the court of his intention to withdraw the suit which the court upheld and struck out the suit.
Speaking with newsmen, Barr Chukwuezie said: “Regarding NDDC, the request sought by the plaintiff was in respect to persons that had been offered foreign scholarship by the NDDC in the year 2017 and 2018. And further requested for the budget approved for such scholarship including names of beneficiaries as well as the amount spent on each of the beneficiaries.
“The commission (NDDC) through their lawyer had turn in their response and we have joined issues with them. The matter was argued.
“Of course, we also joined the Attorney General of the Federation as third defendant whom we have asked to institute criminal proceedings against NDDC for its failure to make the said information available to the plaintiff within seven days it received the request.
“The FoI Act 2011 has made it an offence if it is established that the applicant (plaintiff) was denied access to the said information.
“Pursuance to the provisions of the FoI Act 2011, we have prayed the court to order the Attorney General of the Federation to commence criminal proceedings against NDDC and its Managing Director for their refusal to grant the plaintiff the said information he had sought for.
“The court had consequently adjourned the matter to the 2nd day of October, 2019 for judgment.”
“For HYPREP, they had furnished us with all the information we have sought from them. They have also gone ahead to send all the information to the plaintiff’s email which is the alternative means upon which we asked them to make these information available to us.
“Following their compliance with the request, the plaintiff now thought it fit that there is no point going ahead with the suit since all he had requested from them had been given to you.
“Pursuant to that effect, he had instructed me (his lawyer) to withdraw the suit and I have withdrawn the suit in line with his directive and upon that being done, the suit was struck out.
It might interest you to know that the FoI Act 2011 has placed a duty on public institutions to make available any information Nigerians wanted provided the information did not come under those ones the law exempted especially those that border on security reasons.
Wherein they (the public institutions) can not make the information available, the law requires them to write the applicant, stating the reason why the information is not available or face legal action by the applicant if the applicant deemed it okay to pursue enforcement in court.
