The matter before the Makurdi High Court wherein Rommy Mom seeks information from BSEMA on the status of the flood victims fund has been fixed for judgment on the 15th of July 2013.
Arguments on the matter were taken on Thursday last week the 4th day of July 2013
At the hearing Mr. Kizito Agbanjo, Counsel for Rommy Mom, posited that Mom has the right to know exactly the position of the funds vis a vis usage and who benefitted therefrom once he approached the Government Agency that should ordinarily be in possession or have knowledge of the money. He argued that BSEMA was in the wrong to simply state that it was not given the money and/or does not have information regarding what happened to the funds. Agbanjo argued that under the FOI law, BSEMA was to forward the request of Mr Mom to any government agency that possesses such information and seek an extension of time to produce the information. He prayed the Court to so order and grant the reliefs Mr Mom seeks.
Kizito Agbanjo
An attorney from the Attorney General‘s office argued that an Agency cannot produce what it does not have. He stood by the defence that the Benue State Government did not hand over the funds to BSEMA, wherein it has no information on what or how the funds were put to use and it consequently cannot produce the information from nothing. He conceded that BSEMA is the Agency that should ordinarily have the information.
The Court has fixed judgemnet/ruling for the 15th day of July 2013.