Suspended Census: Court Orders NPC to Account for N200bn

Alex Enumah in Abuja

Justice Inyang Ekwo of a Federal High Court in Abuja, yesterday ordered the National Population Commission, (NPC) to give account of how it spent N200 billion out of the funds allocated to the commission for the conduct of the  2023 national census.

Justice Ekwo made the order while delivering judgment in a suit filed against the population commission by an Abuja based lawyer, Mr Victor Opatola.
The lawyer had dragged the NPC to court for refusing to provide detailed information on how it spent the sum of N200 billion on preparations for the postponed 2023 population and housing census.

Amongst reliefs sought from the court include an order of mandamus directing the defendant “to furnish the plaintiff with comprehensive and detailed information concerning information on the funds received so far by the commission towards the conduct of 2023 Census by the plaintiff’s application within 7 days”.

Delivering judgment in the suit,  Ekwo held that the refusal by the NPC to release the information or records of spending on the aborted census as requested by the lawyer on March 30, 2023 was wrongful, illegal and unconstitutional.
Citing Section 4 of the Freedom of Information Act, (FOI), the judge held that the refusal of the commission to provide the plaintiff with information on the companies that provided due diligence report on the technology to be deployed for the ill-fated census was a gross violation of the right of the plaintiff as enshrined in Section 4 of the FOI Act.

 Ekwo rejected the claim by the defendant that bureaucracy and the absence of its executive chairman at the time was responsible for the refusal to make the requested records available to the plaintiff, adding that the claim was untenable.
The judge also dismissed the claim by the NPC that some of the requested information was classified which prompted the refusal to make the records available to the plaintiff, adding that from the definition of classified information, there was nothing secret on the issue of population census.

 Ekwo also said that the position of the commission that the record sought by the plaintiff was already in the public domain was not tenable because the request of the plaintiff was on record at the disposal of the NPC and not the one in the public domain.

He accordingly granted an order of mandamus compelling the NPC, its servants, agents privies and officials to furnish the lawyer with comprehensive and detailed information concerning the Quality Test Assurance Report on the devices and technology to be deployed for the postponed 2023 population census.

The court, however, refused to grant the sum of N500,000 demanded by the plaintiff for alleged breach of his right under the FOI, Act.

The NPC Executive Chairman, Nasir Kwarra, in May 2023, had disclosed that the commission spent N200 billion for preparation, out of the expected N800 billion needed to conduct the census.

The disclosure led the lawyer to file an FOI application to the commission, on March 2023, requesting information on the budget submitted by the commission for the 2023 census as well as the amount so far received by the commission towards the conduct of the 2023 census.

The plaintiff who claimed that the said application addressed to the NPC was duly acknowledged and served on the commission through its chairman, lamented that the NPC declined to do the needful in line with relevant laws.

In the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/ 503/2023, Opatola prayed the court to hold that the refusal of the population commission to make the record of spendings on the aborted population census among others, available to him was a breech of his rights under Section 4 of the FOI Act 2012.