The Court of Appeal in Abuja has ordered the Central Bank of Nigeria to release full details of subsidised foreign exchange granted to Nigerian pilgrims for Hajj between 2016 and 2020.
A three-member panel of Justices Usman Musale, Boloukuromo Ugo, and Mohammed Danjuma dismissed the CBN’s appeal and upheld the 3 May 2023 judgment of the Federal High Court, which had earlier directed the apex bank to provide the information to the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA Resource Centre).
Delivering the lead judgment, Justice Musale held that the CBN, as a public institution, could not withhold such information, stressing that the Freedom of Information Act imposes a legal duty of disclosure.
‘I am in agreement with the lower court that the appellant, as a public institution, has a duty under the FOI Act to provide the details of the information requested by the respondent. The failure is a breach of the intendment of the FOI Act and unlawful. For these reasons, the appeal fails and the same is dismissed’, Musale ruled.
The appellate court also affirmed the lower court’s order in its entirety and directed the CBN to pay N500,000 as costs to HEDA.
The case began in 2020 when HEDA, invoking the FOI Act, requested a breakdown of the CBN’s subsidised forex schemes, including allocations to pilgrims for Hajj, sectoral disbursements, and lists of beneficiaries. Justice Mobolaji Olajuwon of the Federal High Court had granted the request, but the CBN appealed, arguing that HEDA lacked locus standi, that the court had no jurisdiction, and that the FOI Act was wrongly applied.
The apex bank also claimed that no records existed on subsidised forex for pilgrims within the disputed period. But the Court of Appeal rejected all these arguments, insisting that transparency in the management of public resources is a matter of overriding national interest.
The court further clarified that under Section 20 of the FOI Act, any person denied access to public information may seek judicial intervention, and that the FOI Act overrides conflicting provisions of the Evidence Act.
Reacting to the judgment, HEDA’s Chairman, Olanrewaju Suraju, described the ruling as a landmark victory for accountability in governance.
‘This judgment is not just for HEDA but for all Nigerians who believe in transparency and accountability. It reinforces citizens’ right to demand and obtain public information, especially when it involves public funds and subsidies’, Suraju said.
‘It sends a clear signal to institutions that secrecy has no place in a democracy and that public resources must be managed in the light of accountability’, he added.
