- The SERAP requested the EFCC
to investigate N500 million
allegedly diverted or stolen by
corrupt officials - The money was allocated by Dr.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the ex-
minister of finance, to rebuild
the Government Girls School in
Chibok - The organisation accused the
former president Goodluck
Jonathan government of failure
to live up to Nigeria’s
commitments under the global
Safe School Declaration. The Socio-Economic Rights and
Accountability Project (SERAP)
has appealed to Ibrahim Mustafa
Magu, the chairman of Economic
and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC), requesting him to "urgently begin a thorough,
transparent and effective
investigation into allegation that
N500 million Safe School funds
for Chibok girls, commissioned
by former Minister of Finance Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to rebuild
the Government Girls School in
Chibok, is missing and cannot be
accounted for."The SERAP representatives insist
on suspects, including the
contractors responsible for the
project, to be invited for
questioning, made their names
public and punish accordingly. The petition reads in part:
"SERAP believes that the
diversion of the funds will
expose the school to attacks in
the future. This is a fundamental
breach of the country’s obligations including guarantees
of non-repetition, which
contribute to prevention and
deterrence of future attacks. SERAP urges the EFCC to work
with the Independent Corrupt
Practices and other Related
Offences Commission (ICPC) to
set up a mechanism to monitor
government’s spending of the safe school funds in order to
ensure that the funds are spent
exactly to prevent and deter
future attacks, and to allow the
girls to go back to school as soon
as possible. SERAP is seriously concerned
that the school has remained in
a state of disrepair since the
abduction of the girls, and
students have remained at
home.SERAP is concerned that the
alleged diversion of N500m
meant for reconstruction of
Government Girls School in
Chibok has directly violated the
right to education of the girls, as guaranteed under the
International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights to which Nigeria is a state
party. The diversion has undermined
the obligation of the
government to take step to the
maximum of its available
resources to achieve the right to
education. The alleged diversion also shows
a serious breach of
anticorruption legislation
including the EFCC Act, and
Nigeria’s international
obligations under the UN Convention against Corruption
and the African Union
Convention on Preventing and
Combating Corruption both of
which the country has ratified. The EFCC should ensure full
accountability and bring to
justice anyone found to be
responsible for corruption and
diversion of safe school funds.
The EFCC should also ensure that all proceeds of corruption are
recovered and returned back to
the treasury.This request is based on
allegation by Governor Kashim
Shettima that N500 million set
aside by the government of
former President Goodluck
Jonathan, is missing and cannot be accounted for. The funds
were released for rebuilding of
the Government Girls School in
Chibok under the Safe School
Initiative programme, which
was commissioned former Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala." The statement was made public
by Timothy Adewale, the senior
staff attorney of SERAP, on
Tuesday, December 27.
UNDER MAINTENANCE