The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project dragged the Federal Government before the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice over 78.8 billion naira in unaccounted welfare spending. The rights group filed suit ECW/CCJ/APP/42/26 in Abuja following damaging disclosures in the Auditor-General’s latest statutory audit report. Paper registers cannot feed poor households.
The audit query targets disbursements made between January 2023 and December 2024 through the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction alongside its welfare coordination offices. Auditors flagged 33.7 billion naira allegedly sent to 3.2 million vulnerable homes across 35 states without basic payment receipts or reconcilable beneficiary identities. State patronage thrives inside bureaucratic fog.
Auditors also uncovered 36.7 billion naira released without pre-payment audit approvals and 4.6 billion naira in unsupported line expenditures. SERAP lawyers Kolawole Oluwadare and Kehinde Oyewumi argued that mismanaging dedicated relief funds breaches international covenants on human rights and social protection. Careless bookkeeping mocks extreme domestic poverty.
The rights organisation gave President Bola Tinubu an ultimatum in September to publish full transaction records and prosecute implicated welfare officials. The presidency ignored the deadline, letting the matter drift into administrative silence. Official silence invariably invites litigation.
The suit urges the regional court to compel Abuja to recover all diverted funds and suspend new payouts until independent accountants audit the beneficiary register. SERAP insists that cash handouts fail when ministries cannot verify who actually collects the money. Digital databases must show real recipients.
The regional court now faces the delicate task of forcing financial discipline onto an administration that treats welfare spending as discretionary politics. Past palliatives vanished into phantom bank accounts while millions of indigent citizens slipped into deeper destitution. The judges must demand genuine accountability.