Court Dismisses FOI Request On Stella Oduah’s BMW Cars

A Federal High Court sitting Lagos has struck out the Freedom of Information suit filed by the incorporated trustees of the Media Right Agenda (MRA), demanding information about the controversial armoured BMW cars purchased for former minister, Stella Oduah, when she was in office. MRA had filed the action seeking to compel the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and the Attorney-General of the Federation to disclose information on the procurement of the controversial BMW cars bought for former Aviation Minister, Princess Stella Oduah. MRA had sought a relief to the effect that the failure and or refusal of NCAA to disclose or make available to the applicants the information requested in their letter dated October 21, 2013 amounts to violation of applicants’ right to access to information established and guaranteed by section 1(1) and section 4(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2011. The letter had requested for NCAA’s annual budget, the public procurement plans, procurement record for the purchase of two BMW 760 LI vehicles, evidence of advertisements to that effect, a list of bids tendered, copies of bid evaluation meetings, pro forma invoice of those documents as well as documents showing delivery of procured vehicles among other things. They insisted that the information requested for, apart from not being exempted from disclosure under the FOI Act, bothers on an issue of national interest, public concern, social justice, good governance, transparency and accountability. The NCAA, in its objections, said that the applicants did not meet up with certain condition precedent before instituting an action against the respondents. He also argued that the FOI applications failed to issue the 30 days notice required by section 24(2) of the Civil Aviation Act 2006 among other objections. He then urged the court to strike out the suit for lack of jurisdiction. Justice Ibrahim Buba, in his decision, ruled that the information requested went outside the contemplation of the Freedom of Information Act. He also held that the requested information is a published material that falls under the exception stated in section 26(a) of the Freedom of Information Act and that the budgetary allocation for the referred procurement process was contained in the 2013 budget of the Federal Government of Nigeria. http://www.channelstv.com/2014/10/27/court-dismisses-foi- request-on-stella-oduahs-bmw-cars/