Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja has mandated the National Population Commission (NPC) to disclose the intricacies of its expenditure related to the abandoned 2023 Population Census to Abuja-based lawyer, Opatola Victor, within a stipulated seven-day period.
The directive was issued during the delivery of judgment in a lawsuit filed against the population commission.
Justice Ekwo ruled that the NPC’s refusal to divulge information or records of spending on the halted census, as requested by Victor on March 30th, 2023, was not only wrongful but also deemed illegal and unconstitutional.
Citing Section 4 of the Freedom of Information Act, Justice Ekwo emphasized that the commission’s denial of information pertaining to the companies responsible for providing a due diligence report on the technology intended for the ill-fated census amounted to a blatant violation of the plaintiff’s rights, as outlined in Section 4 of the FOI Act.
Although the court opted not to grant the requested N500,000 in favor of the plaintiff, the judgment did include an order of mandamus, compelling the NPC, its servants, agents, privies, and officials to furnish the lawyer with a comprehensive and detailed account concerning the Quality Test Assurance Report on the devices and technology slated for deployment in the postponed 2023 population census.