36 governors are given an ultimatum to reveal spending details on the N2 billion palliative.

The 36 state governors have been given a week’s notice by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) to account for the N2 billion in relief funds they received from the federal government.

To ease the blow of the fuel subsidy cut, the federal government last month announced a N5 billion palliative package for each of the states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

On Friday, Wale Edun, the Minister of Finance, announced that only N2 billion of the N5 billion loan the federal government offered to each state as a palliative to cushion the effect of subsidy removal had been released.

But in a statement released today, SERAP demanded that the Nigerian governors explain how they planned to spend the relief funds they had received from Abuja.

Kolawole Oluwadare, the group’s deputy director, called on the states to “disclose details on spending of the N2 billion palliative recently disbursed to each state by the Federal Government, including the names of beneficiaries and details of the reliefs so far provided with the money.”

“It is in the public interest to publish the details on spending the N2 billion palliative and any subsequent disbursement of funds to your government,” the statement read.

To what end are states allocating the fuel subsidy relief funds? Nigerians deserve to know. It’s a basic human right that can be enforced by the law.

We would appreciate it if the suggested actions were taken no later than seven days after this letter was received and/or made public. SERAP will take all necessary legal action to compel you and your state to comply with our request in the public interest if we do not hear from you by that time.