TheCable

A civil society group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), has given the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) 14 days to provide information about their spending on electoral  campaigns and other operations relating to the 2015 general election.

In two separate letters dated November 18, 2014 and addressed to Adamu Mu’azu, PDP national chairman and John Odigie-Oyegun, APC national chairman, the group expressed serious concern about the risks of corruption during electoral campaigns for the February 2015 elections.

It premised its request on the Freedom of Information (FOI) act, noting that the parties could not disregard the provisions of the act, as doing so would seriously undermine citizens’ trust in their political parties, which would inevitably destroy confidence in the system and decrease citizens’ interest and participation in democratic processes.

“Nigerians have the right to know about spending by their political parties, especially the major parties like your party with a strong possibility to assume government in the future. Citizens should be able to examine financial transactions of parties and be certain that politicians are working for their voters, not their benefactors,” SERAP said while drawing attention to the role of money in politics and the persistent general failure to comply with national and international law on political party finance.

SERAP noted that by granting its request, PDP and APC would help to address the perception among the citizens that the major political parties in the country are less transparent and accountable.

“The lack of transparency and accountability in political finance is seriously undermining the legitimacy and credibility of the democratic and electoral processes, and invariably contributing to denying the citizens the right to effective participation in their own government,” the group said.

While requesting information on each party’s entire budget, including incomes, expenditures and funding sources for the campaigns and other operations related to the February 2015 general election, SERAP also demanded disclosure of contributions received by the presidential and gubernatorial candidates.

In each of the two letters signed by Adetokunbo Mumuni, its executive director, SERAP said it would take legal action should the parties refuse to grant its request.

“By virtue of Section 1 (1) of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2011, SERAP is entitled as of right to request for or gain access to information being requested. Under the FOI Act, your party is under a binding legal obligation to provide the applicant with the information requested for, except as otherwise provided by the Act, within 7 days after the application is received,” it said.

“If the requested information is not provided to us within 14 days of the receipt and/or publication of this letter, the registered trustees of SERAP shall take all appropriate legal actions under the Freedom of Information Act to compel you and your party to comply with our request.”