Court Dismisses NGO’s FOI Request

A Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja has dismissed an application by a Non Governmental Organisation, Citizen Assistance Centre, seeking detailed information on the overhead costs of the State House of Assembly from May 1999 to September 2011.

The Speaker, Hon Adeyemi Ikuforiji and the Lagos State House of Assembly are the two respondents in the suit.

Presiding Justice Yetunde Idowu, in her ruling, dismissed the application on the basis that it was filed out of time.

Justice Idowu held that the  provisions of the FOI Act stipulated that such application must be filed within 30 days after a public institution denies or refuses to respond to the request after 7 days.

According to the Judge, the respondents had ignored the applicant’s letter dated July 14, 2011, requesting for the said information, but the suit was only filed by the applicant’s counsel, Mr. Nurudeen Ogbara, on the 25th of October, 2011.

In dismissing the suit, Justice Idowu also held that the FOI Act, came into operation in May 2011, and as such could not be applied retroactively to seek information covering the period earlier than when the law came into force.

The third ground for dismissing the application, was that “by virtue of section 14 of the FOI Act, overhead costs are classified under section 14(1)(b) and contains personal information and other information exempted under the law.”

The court however dismissed the objection of counsel to the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mr Wahab Shittu on the legal capacity of the applicant, Citizens Assistance Centre to commence the action.