And they said they are Holy......... Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State has indicated to file a fresh objection against a suit seeking an order to compel him to release information relating to how government spent the $90m loan obtained from the World Bank for the purpose of improving public schools in the state. A rights group, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, had sued the governor and the attorney-general over the loan allegedly obtained from the World Bank. SERAP had stated that it resorted to suing the governor and the attorney-general after they refused to honour its letter dated December 1, 2013, requesting the information under the Freedom of Information Act 2011. But Ipaye had, in a counter-affidavit, opposed the suit, arguing that the FoI Act was not applicable to Lagos State because the law was a federal legislation. Ipaye, who is the second defendant in the suit, argued in the defendants’ counter-affidavit that since the FoI Act was a federal legislation, it was only applicable in relation to public records of government of the federation and not of the states. The state government submitted that the power to make laws on public records had been concurrently shared between the National Assembly and the state Houses of Assembly in their respective sphere of jurisdiction. It added that the FoI Act was not applicable to the records of states in the federation in so far as the states had not enacted them as laws through their respective Houses of Assembly. The counter-affidavit reads, “The public records of the Lagos State Government are generated and kept by various Ministries, Departments, Agencies and personnel of the state government in execution of their functions and responsibilities in the service of the state. “Such state government agencies and personnel are statutorily created or regulated by the laws of the state House of Assembly and the handling of public records has serious security implications which are routinely handled by rules established by the state government.” punchng/news/education-fund-fashola-to-file-fresh-objection-against-foi-suit-2/
Posted on: Thu, 10 Apr 2014 12:27:08 +0000
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