The
Lagos State Government has lodged an appeal at the Court of Appeal in Lagos
seeking to set aside the ruling of an Ikeja High Court in Lagos, which held
that the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, 2011 is applicable to the State even
without “domestication”, reports ITRealms.
The Legal Officer, Media Rights Agenda, Ms Chioma
Nwaodike, affirmed this in a press statement made available to ITRealms, saying that in a Notice of
Appeal filed by the Lagos State Director of Civil Litigation, Mr. Saheed
Quadri, on behalf of the State’s Attorney-General and Commissioner of Justice,
the Government is asking the Court of Appeal to set aside the November 28, 2017
ruling by Justice Beatrice Oke-Lawal in a suit instituted against the
Government and the State Ministry of Health by Media Rights Agenda (MRA) over
its failure to disclosure records and information requested by the organization
under the FOI Act.
Justice
Oke-Lawal had in the ruling dismissed a preliminary objection raised by the
State Government and the Ministry to MRA’s suit and held that the FOI Act
was validly made by the National Assembly and applicable to the Government of
the Federation as well as State Governments.
The
Government and the Ministry are asking the Appeal Court to set aside the lower
court’s ruling and dismiss the suit filed against them by MRA to compel
compliance with a Freedom of Information request made by the organization in
November 2016 to the Ministry asking, among other things, for details and
copies of plans put in place by the Ministry to provide the Araromi Zion Estate
located in Akiode Area of Ojodu Local Council Development Area (LCDA)
with health care services; the timeframe for the implementation of
the plans, as well as details of the budgets and costs estimates for the
implementation of the plans, if any.
In
its Notice of Appeal, the Government contended that Justice Oke-Lawal erred in
law when she held that the FOI Act is applicable to the State, claiming that
“Notwithstanding the permissible provision of Section 21 of the Freedom of
Information Act allowing issues raised pursuant to Section 20 of the same law
to be determined summarily, there abounds legions of judicial pronouncement
forbidding courts from pronouncing on substantive matter at interlocutory
stage.”
The
Government accused the judge of failing to restrain herself from “pronouncing
on the substantive matter when parties are yet to make their submissions.”
It
also claimed that the judge erred in law by assuming jurisdiction when MRA
failed to comply with a condition precedent to the institution of the suit and
alleged that the organization filed the suit outside the 30 days within which
it is allowed to seek judicial review after it was denied or deemed to have
been denied the information requested.
The
Government and the Ministry have also filed a motion on notice at the Ikeja
Judicial Division of the Lagos High Court asking the court to stay further
proceedings in the suit pending the determination of its appeal by the Court of
Appeal.
Hearing
in the matter has been fixed for December 20, 2017 at
the Ikeja High Court.
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