A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, yesterday, dismissed the suit instituted by a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Forum (SERAP) seeking to compel the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) to disclose how the $12.4 billion oil windfall money that accrued to the Federal Government between 1988 and 1994 under the regime of General Ibrahim Babangida was spent.
While dismissing the suit, Justice Gabriel Kolawole noted that although the plaintiffs meant well for the country and wanted a country free of corruption, but that they lacked locus standi to file the suit.
Besides, he said,the suit was not justiciable as it was status barred, having been filed after 12 calendar months after the said Pius Okigbo Panel was submitted in 1994 or when it was claimed to have been found in 2005.
The trial judge held that the plaintiffs have not adduced admissible evidence to prove that a Dedicated and Special Accounts was maintained in the CBN where the $12.4 billion was reserved and subsequently depleted to $200 million by June 1994 by General Babangida’s military administration.