Falana Sues 36 States Over N68bn UBEC Funds

Human rights lawyer, Mrs. Funmi Falana (SAN), has dragged the 36 state governments and the Federal Capital Territory before the Federal High Court in Lagos over their failure to access N68 billion Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) funds to provide free basic education for their citizens.

Mrs. Falana alleges that the states failed to pay the counterparts funds necessary to access the UBEC funds.

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Also joined as defendants in the suit are the Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), the Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman (SAN), and UBEC.

Mrs. Falana wants the court to determine whether the refusal or failure of the respondents to access the sum of N68 billion for the Universal Basic Education of children of school age in Nigeria is illegal as it violates section 11(2) of the Compulsory, Free Universal Basic Education Act, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.

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She wants the court to make an order directing the 4th-40th respondents to pay the counterpart funds to access the matching grant of N68 billion in the account of the Universal Basic Education Fund and report compliance with the order within 30 days of the delivery of the judgment of this honorable court.

Since 2005, the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory failed to access the N68 billion education grant, set aside to aid educational development in their various domains.

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Meanwhile, the number of out-of-school children keeps soaring, with the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund estimating their number to be about 20.3 million.