A Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the National Population Commission, NPC, to release details of expenses on the aborted 2023 Population Census to an Abuja based lawyer, Opatola Victor, within seven days.
Justice Inyang Edem Ekwo issued the order in Abuja on Thursday while delivering judgment in a suit instituted against the Commission.
The judge declared that the refusal by the NPC to release the information or records of spendings on the aborted census as requested by the lawyer on March 30, 2023, was wrongful, illegal and unconstitutional.
Justice Ekwo, who invoked Section 4 of the Freedom of Information Act, (FOI) in the judgment, held that the refusal of the Commission to provide the plaintiff with information on the companies that provided due diligence report on the technology to be deployed for the ill-fated census was a gross violation of the right of the plaintiff as enshrined in Section 4 of the FOI Act.
The court, however, refused to grant N500,000 in favour of the plaintiff as he requested in the suit.
In the judgment, the judge granted an order of mandamus compelling the NPC, its servants, agents privies and officials to furnish the lawyer with comprehensive and detailed information concerning the Quality Test Assurance Report on the devices and technology to be deployed for the postponed 2023 population census.
Justice Ekwo rejected the claim by the defendant that bureaucracy and the absence of the Commission’s executive chairman at the time were responsible for the refusal to make the requested records available to the plaintiff, adding that the claim was untenable.
The judge also dismissed the claim by the NPC that some of the requested information were classified, which prompted the refusal to make the records available to the plaintiff, adding that from the definition of classified information, there was nothing secret on the issue of population census.
Justice Ekwo also said that the position of the Commission that the record sought by the plaintiff was already in the public domain was not tenable because the request of the plaintiff was on record at the disposal of the NPC and not the one in the public domain.
The Abuja lawyer had, in the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/ 503/2023, prayed the court for an order that the refusal of the Commission to make the record of spendings on the aborted population census among others, available to him was a breach of his rights under Section 4 of the FOI Act 2012.
He prayed the court for an order of mandamus compelling the population commission to make the requested records of the aborted 2023 population census available to him in line with the provisions of the FOI Act.
Although the plaintiff requested for a compensation of N500,000 for the breach of his rights by NPC under the FOI Act, Justice Ekwo turned down the request on the grounds that the Commission was not convicted for any offense.