Minister seeks more time to account for spending on water project

Minister of Water Resources, Mr. Suleiman Adamu, has urged the Federal High Court in Lagos to “grant the ministry more time within which to compile and furnish the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) with information on the spending on water, and locations of specific projects, in view of the high volume of the information involved.”

Adamu said: “It is not true that millions of Nigerians are drinking water from contaminated sources. It is not the duties of the Ministry of Water Resources alone to provide drinking water for the citizens.”

The ministry stated this in its reply to the Freedom of Information (FoI) suit filed in April by SERAP requesting Adamu and the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr. Audu Ogbeh, to “explain why millions of Nigerians have to resort to drinking water from contaminated sources with deadly health consequences despite the authorities claiming to have spent trillions of naira of budgetary allocations on the sector since 1999.”

However, while Adamu has promised to render account on spending on water projects and now asking the court for more time to do so, Ogbeh has so far failed, refused and/or neglected to respond to SERAP’s request and has not filed any paper in court to counter the suit filed by the organisation.