Offokaja Foundation

Category: Public Interest Litigation

  • Why SERAP Is A Necessary Organization

    Why SERAP Is A Necessary Organization

    On social media, I frequently read people saying that SERAP just sues the government every week but they hardly see immediate results of those lawsuits.

    This reminds me of news of one of our lawsuits we shared on social media. By evening some people were asking us what the judgement was of the lawsuit. Hahaha. It’s not that immediate.

    The truth is that court cases rarely end in one day. Some end in months. And then, there are cases that clearly drag on for longer than they should.

    Prolonged duration of lawsuits are not always the fault of the plaintiffs who initiated the suit. In fact, many plaintiffs would prefer the judgement of the case to be given on the very day the lawsuit is filed.

    For those asking what results SERAP has gotten from its frequent lawsuits, I can tell you one for free. They once uncovered a 3 billion Naira corruption through their lawsuit. Isn’t that a huge result?

    Should SERAP stop public interest litigations just because the results take some time to materialize? The resounding answer from our side is a Big ‘No!’

    An organization like SERAP is surely needed.

  • Unhappy Bank Customers: Offokaja Foundation Asks Court To Order Banking Ombudsman For Nigeria

    Unhappy Bank Customers: Offokaja Foundation Asks Court To Order Banking Ombudsman For Nigeria

    Nigeria may soon get an independent banking ombudsman empowered with binding powers to grant relief to wronged bank customers. This is one of the pleadings of the Prince and Princess Charles Offokaja Foundation Nigeria to the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice in a recent public interest litigation suit (ECW/CCJ/APP/50/22) brought before the international human rights court.

    The Plaintiffs, the Prince and Princess Charles Offokaja Foundation Nigeria and the Prince and Princess Charles Offokaja Foundation Switzerland are among other requests asking the court for:

    (e) An Order compelling Nigeria to, pending the passing of the Financial Ombudsman Bill into law and the operationalization of such law, and within 3 months of judgement by this Honourable Court, operationalize an interim, independent, effective and accessible financial ombudsman service where dissatisfied consumers have the option to escalate complaints not satisfactorily resolved by the Consumer Protection Department of the CBN within 3 months of escalation to the Department under the following interim conditions:

    1. There shall be an ombudsman service made up of an ombudsman board and an ombudsman office which shall be headed by an ombudsman
    2. The ombudsman board shall be appointed by the Central Bank of Nigeria with five members from the banks representing the banks and six non-bank members to represent bank customers, with the chairperson also being a non-bank member.
    3. There shall be an ombudsman office headed by an ombudsman who shall function as the chief executive of the ombudsman office. The ombudsman shall not be a banker and shall not own shares in Nigeria’s banking sector at any time during his appointment.
    4. The ombudsman board shall elect the ombudsman for a non-renewable term of 3 years, and exercise oversight on his activities on behalf of the CBN. The ombudsman board shall also approve the annual budget of the ombudsman service subject to the final determination of the Central Bank of Nigeria. The ombudsman service shall be funded by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
    5. The ombudsman board shall not serve as an appellate body on the decisions of the ombudsman regarding complaints brought to the ombudsman office. The ombudsman board shall be appointed for a non-renewable term of 4 years.
    6. In handling consumer complaints escalated to it, the ombudsman shall have the authority to pass either binding awards (determinations) or non-binding awards (suggestions). The ombudsman office shall resolve complaints based on the delegated authority passed to them by the ombudsman.
    7. The ombudsman may award compensation not exceeding NGN3 million (in 2022 value) to the complainant for emotional/mental/ agony, social loss of reputation, and harassment. The ombudsman shall take into account such factors as the loss of the complainant’s business opportunities, loss of time and manhours, expenses incurred by the complainant, harassment, emotional and mental anguish suffered by the complainant while passing such award.
    8. Parties that don’t agree with a binding award of the ombudsman have the option of and right to appeal by going to the court of law.
    9. There shall be branches of the financial ombudsman office in all 36 states of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and a Federal Capital branch in Abuja, as well as a head office at Abuja. There shall also be a website, telephone lines and social media handles to facilitate consumer access to the ombudsman service.
    10. The ombudsman office shall only deal with complaints escalated to it by parties dissatisfied with a resolution by the Consumer Protection Department of the Central Bank or after non-resolution of a previously escalated complaint by the Consumer Protection Department within a timeframe of at least 3 months.
    11. Except for cases of abuse of office or corruption, the ombudsman once appointed can only be removed by an unanimous vote of the non-bank members of the ombudsman board.
    12. The CBN shall by use of delegated legislation form and adapt a frame of reference for the ombudsman board and ombudsman office from the aspects of the Financial Ombudsman Bill as needed insofar as non of the above conditions are derogated from in the process.
    13. The Defendant’s Central Bank shall be able to change any of the above conditions by an Act of Nigeria’s Federal Legislature at any time. The Defendant’s Central Bank shall guarantee the operational independence of the interim financial ombudsman for as long as it exists. The moment the permanent ombudsman structure proposed in the Financial Ombudsman Bill is passed into law and becomes operational, it shall take over the functions of the above interim ombudsman service.

  • Court Asked To Order Creation Of 6th State In South East

    The Prince and Princess Charles Offokaja Foundation Nigeria and the Prince and Princess Charles Offokaja Foundation Switzerland have filed a lawsuit against the Nigerian Government over its failure to create a sixth state in its South Eastern geopolitical zone in order to bring it up to par with the other geopolitical zones of Nigeria.

    According to the NGOs this is contrary to the Principle of Equality and Non Discrimination, and contrary to Nigeria’s obligation to ensure the right to Development.
    The North West has 7 states, while Four other geopolitical zones, the South West, South South, North Central and North East have 6 states each. Only the South East is left with 5 states.

    The Plaintiffs’ application in the suit reads, “This failure of the Defendant has led to marginalization of the People of the South East in terms of access to resources for Development: in the allocation of funds for Development from the Federation Account; in the number of Senate seats allocated to the South East; and in the number of statutory seats allocated to the South East at the Federal Executive Council (FEC).

    “The Plaintiffs contend that this distinction is arbitrary, discriminatory and amounts to a violation of the principle of Equality and Non Discrimination, and is a violation of the right to Equality under Article 19 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (hereinafter referred to as the African Charter).

    “As a result of this failure to create a 6th state in the South East to bring it up to par with the other geopolitical zones, the Defendant has also violated the right to Development of the People of the zone under Article 22 of the African Charter.”

    The Plaintiffs are asking for, among other things, an order compelling the Defendants to create a sixth state in the South East with 1 year.

  • Offokaja Foundation Drags Nigerian Government To Court Over Non-Completion Of Dasin Hausa Dam

    The Prince and Princess Charles Offokaja Foundation Nigeria and Prince and Princess Charles Offokaja Foundation Switzerland have sued the Nigerian Government at the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice over the non-completion of the Dasin Hausa Dam, which has caused massive loss of lives and property from flooding each time Cameroon opens its Lagdo Dam to release excess water.

    The Dasin Hausa Dam was designed to act as a shock absorber to flood waters flowing from Cameroon’s Lagdo Dam into Nigeria each time Cameroon opens up its Lagdo Dam to release excess water.

    Cameroon’s Lagdo Dam was constructed from 1977 to 1982. But Nigeria’s Dasin Hausa Dam on the Nigerian side has inexplicably been under construction since 1982, currently for a total of 41 years in 2023.

    And this delay in building it has led to loss of lives and property, particularly in the floods of 2012 and in 2022.

    In those years, the massive flood waters faced no barrier, and submerged many communities in many states from River Benue Basin to Anambra, to the Niger Delta before emptying into the Atlantic Ocean.

    According to the Plaintiffs’ initial application in the suit (ECW/CCJ/APP/25/23), apart from serving as a barrier against floods, the dam would have been capable of providing irrigation to about 150,000 hectres of land for agriculture, hold thousands of tons of fish, and also provide about 300 mega watts of electricity if it had been completed.

    The NGOs are particularly asking the court to order the Government to complete an updated version of the dam within 18 months of judgement, in order to forestall further loss of life and property from flooding.

    They are also asking the court to ensure that the dam works optimally in the face of Global Warming.

    No date has been fixed for hearing.

  • African Union: Offokaja Foundation Sues Nigerian Government Over Exclusion Of Haiti, Afro Americans

    The Prince & Princess Charles Offokaja Foundation, Switzerland and the Prince and Princess Charles Offokaja Foundation Nigeria have dragged the Federal Government of Nigeria to the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice asking the court to compel Nigeria to ensure consideration of Haiti’s application to join the African Union which has been unattended to since 2016.

    The NGOs are also asking the court to compel the Federal Government to provide (dual) citizenship to Afro Americans from Afro American Minority Countries who want to participate Fully in the building of the African Union.

    The suit is marked ECW/CCJ/APP/ 54/22. In a statement on the suit, the Plaintiffs averred that the Afro Americans, (Haitian Afro Americans included) are the only Africans of the African Diaspora who are not members of an AU Member State.

    “Despite instruments that provide for a possibility for their membership, they are arbitrarily excluded.”

    No date has been chosen for hearing.