The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), has dragged all 36 state governors and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, to court over their refusal to account for billions of naira spent as ‘security votes’ since May 29, 2023.
The lawsuit comes amid rising insecurity across the country, including the recent massacre in Benue State, despite more than ₦400 billion reportedly budgeted annually as security votes nationwide. SERAP disclosed that at least 10 governors alone earmarked about ₦140 billion for security votes in their 2026 budgets.
Filed last Friday at the Federal High Court in Abuja under suit number FHC/ABJ/CS/95/2026, the case seeks an order compelling the governors and the FCT minister to publicly disclose how security votes have been spent over the past two and a half years.
SERAP is asking the court to mandate detailed breakdowns of the allocations, implementation status, completion reports, and any concrete plans to improve security infrastructure across the states and the FCT.
According to the organisation, Nigerians have a constitutional right to know how public funds—especially those allocated for security—are utilised, given the worsening safety situation and its devastating social and economic consequences.
SERAP argued that persistent insecurity is deepening poverty, fuelling hunger and exposing millions of vulnerable Nigerians to grave human rights abuses, while governors and the FCT minister continue to fall short of their constitutional duty to protect lives and property.
“The framers of the 1999 Constitution never envisaged opaque spending of public funds in the name of security votes,” SERAP said, adding that democracy itself rests on transparency and accountability.
In court documents filed by SERAP’s lawyers—Oluwakemi Agunbiade, Andrew Nwankwo and Valentina Adegoke—the group warned of a “significant risk of embezzlement, misappropriation or diversion” arising from the secrecy surrounding security votes.
Despite massive yearly allocations, SERAP said many governors have failed to deliver security outcomes, in violation of Section 14(2)(b) of the Constitution, which places the welfare and security of the people as the primary purpose of government.
The organisation stressed that compelling disclosure would spark an honest national conversation about insecurity and force public officials to justify their actions—or inaction.
SERAP further cited a landmark Supreme Court ruling affirming that the Freedom of Information Act applies to all public records across the federation, including security vote expenditures by states and the FCT, dismissing claims that governors are exempt.
The suit also referenced Nigeria’s recent classification by the World Bank as a fragile and conflict-affected state, linking escalating insecurity to rising extreme poverty, food insecurity, and collapsing basic services.
“There is a compelling public interest in publishing this information,” SERAP insisted, arguing that security votes should be transparently used to improve safety—or returned to public coffers if unspent.
No hearing date has yet been fixed by the court.
