Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has called on Bola Tinubu to direct the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), and appropriate anti-corruption agencies to promptly probe allegations that over N26 billion of public funds were missing, diverted or stolen from the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) and the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources in 2021.
The allegations are detailed in the 2021 audited report released by the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation on November 13, 2024.
According to SERAP anyone suspected to be responsible should face prosecution as appropriate, if there is sufficient admissible evidence, and any missing public funds should be fully recovered and remitted to the treasury.
The body urged Tinubu to use any recovered stolen funds to fund the deficit in the 2025 budget and to ease Nigeria’s crippling debt crisis.
In a letter at the weekend, signed by SERAP’s Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, the organisation said there was a legitimate public interest in ensuring justice and accountability for the grave allegations. According to SERAP, the allegations suggest a grave violation of the public trust, the Nigerian Constitution 1999 (as amended), the country’s anti-corruption legislation and international anticorruption obligations.
SERAP warned that failure to act within seven days of receiving the letter would prompt legal action to compel the government to comply with its demand.
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MEANWHILE, Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA Resource Centre) has condemned an alleged bribery orchestrated by some lawmakers in the National Assembly and called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to immediately commence investigation.
An investigative report had claimed that members of the Senate Committee on Tertiary Education and TETFund, alongside their counterparts in the House Committee on University Education, allegedly demanded the sum of N480 million in bribes from vice chancellors of federal universities to approve their 2025 budget allocations.
In a statement signed by HEDA’s Chairman, Olanrewaju Suraju, the civil society group described the allegations as deeply disturbing, saying they not only violated ethical and legal standards, but also entrenched corruption in Nigeria’s education sector, already plagued by chronic underfunding and administrative challenges.
According to Suraju, it is unacceptable that university administrators, who are entrusted with managing the country’s citadels of learning, are being subjected to intimidation and coercion by lawmakers, who should be championing transparency and accountability.
“The lawmakers allegedly involved must be identified, investigated and, if found guilty, prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Corruption, particularly in the education sector, undermines national development, weakens institutions and erodes public trust in governance,” Suraju said.
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