A socio-political group, under the auspices of the “Ekiti Patriotic Consultative Forum,” has urged the court to compel the Ekiti State Government to make available all documents, including financial records and loans, relating to the Ekiti International Cargo Airport project.

It would be recalled that on October 15, 2022, a day after the end of the last administration, which initiated the project, commissioned the airport, though the facility has not commenced operation due to the absence of navigational and some other equipment.

The state government awarded the contract for the cargo airport to the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation Limited (CCECCL).

However, the lead counsel to the group, Oluwagbenga Babawibe, who is also the Secretary to the forum, disclosed this in a statement, including court processes, made available to newsmen in Ado-Ekiti, yesterday.

Babawibe said the motion ex-parte for the request was filed before the State High Court on March 28, 2024, in a suit between the group and the government.

The counsel, who said the request was made for the documents relying on the provisions of the Ekiti State Freedom of Information Law, 2011, added that his law firm, Urban Attorneys & Solicitors, acting for the forum, had since November 22, 2023, made the written request to the government, through the offices of Secretary to the State Government, Commissioner for Justice and Attorney-General, as well the state’s Accountant-General, and that the receipt of the letter was acknowledged on December 11, 2023 by the accountant-general’s office, but without any response.

He said when the letter was written in 2023, the group had given a seven-day ultimatum, within which the request should be accessed, and warned that failure to act on it, would force the group into approaching the court to compel the government to act.

Babawibe, however, regretted that up till now, despite all the threats, no response had been received from the government, hence the decision to resort to the court to force the state government to act on the said request.

Also, in an affidavit, in support of the motion ex-parte, Tope Kolawole, also a legal practitioner in the same law firm, said that the forum is comprised of very responsible Ekiti indigenes who are always working towards the development and growth of the state.

He said the latest action by the group had become necessary for want of probity, accountability and effective management of public funds.

Babawibe noted that the group, which has the right to know how public fund is spent, had no option but to apply for leave of the court, to file for the said order of mandamus, after all subtle means of getting the relevant documents failed to yield results.