FOI Act: Appeal Court sets aside judgment striking out suit against CBN

The Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, on Friday, set aside a judgment from a Federal High Court which struck out a suit filed against the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for refusing to respond to an application made under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, 2021.

The judgment was in an appeal filed by Lawyers Network against Corruption Ltd/GTE, through its counsel, Mr. Ezenwa Adumnu, challenged the May 26, 2023 judgment of the Federal High Court, Abuja, which struck out its suit against the CBN over the refusal to respond to an FOI application made to it.

The appellant filed the suit by way of an application for judicial review against the refusal of CBN to grant its request to furnish it with the record of physical stocks of the demonetized coins available as of 17th 2017 and 8th Jul 2020.

It is the appellant’s contention that it does not require leave of court before applying for judicial review of a decision of a competent institution like the CBN refusing to provide the information sought.

Justice Okon Abang, who delivered the unanimous judgment of a three-member panel of Justices of the appellate court, held that the denial of the appellant’s request for the demonetized coins available as of 17th of March 2017 and 18th of July 2020 is contrary to the provision of the Freedom of Information Act, 2021.

He held that the appellant is not requested by the provision of Section 21 of the FOI Act to take any legal step before filing the application for judicial review of the decision of the CBN refusing its application.

“Is this my view and, having regard to the provision of Section 21 of the FOI Act, the appellant does not require prior leave before applying to the judicial review of a competent institution’s decision refusing to release information sought by the appellant.?I so hold.

“There is no conditional precedent for the appellant to fulfill before applying to court for a judicial review of the decision of an institution refusing to act on the application to release information.

“Under Section 21 of the Act, there should be no impediment on the way of the appellant to apply to court for judicial review. The intention of the lawmakers here is that any issue that may likely delay or duly obstruct the prompt and speedy hearing of an application made under Fthe OI Act is taken away”, Justice Abang held.

He said, there should be no limitation and bottleneck of any sort when it concerns applications for judicial review under the OI Act, once the application is refused by a public institution for example, the CBN the applicant should have free and automatic access to a court of law within a time frame required under Section 20 of the Act.

Under the provision of Section 20 of the Act, Abang said, the applicant has the right to seek request in court within 30 days from the date of refusal and if the application for judicial review under FOI Act is subject to applying and obtaining leave before approaching a court of law, there is that probability of not meeting the 30 days Section 20 of the Act.

According to Justice Abang, Order 34 Rule 3(1) of the Federal High Court (Civil procedure) Rules, 2019 cannot override the provisions of the constitution, and the jurisdiction donated to the trial court by the FOI Act remains unaffected.

He said, there is no condition precedent to be fulfilled by the appellant before applying for a judicial review, adding that, “The tion of the lawmakers in making provision for automatic hearing in FOI Act cases in my view, is to ensure that nothing inhibits the applicant filing his application within 30 days provided for under Section 20 of the Act.

“The appeal of the appellant succeeds. The trial court erred by striking out the suit of the appellant. The judgment of the trial court is hereby set aside.” Justice Abang held and referred the matter to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court for assignment to another Judge for trial.