SERAP Drags CBN to Court Over Missing Trillions

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project has launched a major legal assault against the Central Bank of Nigeria, demanding a full accounting for a staggering three trillion Naira in public funds that have allegedly gone missing or been diverted. This high-stakes lawsuit, filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja, stems from shocking revelations contained in the latest annual report from the Auditor-General of the Federation, which painted a grim picture of fiscal mismanagement within the nation’s apex financial institution. The rights group is utilizing an order of mandamus to compel the bank to explain exactly how these massive sums vanished, emphasizing the severe implications for national governance and accountability.

At the heart of the legal battle is a breakdown of specific financial irregularities that have severely undermined public trust, according to the lawsuit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/250/2026. The Auditor-General’s report highlighted that in 2022 alone, the Central Bank failed to remit over one trillion Naira of the federal government’s share of operating surplus into the Consolidated Revenue Fund. This failure to transfer funds, which are critical for national development projects, has raised immediate red flags among accountability watchdogs.

Furthermore, the suit brings to light the controversial Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, intended to bolster food security by supporting local farmers, which instead became a conduit for financial leakage. The report disclosed that over 629 billion Naira was disbursed to completely “unknown beneficiaries,” a situation the Auditor-General fears contributed directly to the current difficulties in sustaining food production across the country. The bank has not only failed to track these beneficiaries but has also been unable to recover the massive sum disbursed.

The legal action also meticulously details other instances of alleged misappropriation, including over 784 billion Naira in unpaid, overdue loans and interventions disbursed between 2018 and mid-2022. The audit revealed a shocking lack of effort by the bank to recover these funds, which are legally mandated to be returned to the treasury to bolster the nation’s economy.

Beyond these large figures, SERAP’s suit highlights highly questionable expenditures, such as 125 billion Naira spent on “intervention activities” linked to national security and financial capacity building, all conducted without necessary documentation or approval from the National Assembly. This blatant disregard for budgetary procedures suggests a culture of impunity that the lawsuit aims to dismantle.

The allegations extend to unusual spending habits, including over 1.7 billion Naira justified for purchasing 43 operational vehicles for the Nigeria Immigration Service, a move that the Auditor-General found entirely unrelated to the bank’s core mandate as defined by the CBN Act. Moreover, there is absolutely no evidence that these vehicles were ever supplied or delivered, fueling fears that the money was simply diverted into private hands.

The lawsuit also scrutinizes massive construction contracts totaling over 189 billion Naira, where contractors deliberately delayed projects to demand unjustified price variations. The Central Bank allegedly paid out over nine billion Naira in these irregular variations without proper procurement documents, raising fears that these projects have been abandoned and the funds lost forever.

With small-scale interventions also falling victim to mismanagement, such as 90 million Naira in unrecovered loans for small and medium enterprises in Katsina State during the COVID-19 pandemic, the legal action paints a comprehensive picture of systemic dysfunction. SERAP is arguing that these actions constitute grave violations of the Nigerian Constitution and anti-corruption standards, demanding immediate restitution to the public treasury.

As the Federal High Court prepares to handle this complex case, the suit serves as a definitive demand for transparency, asserting the fundamental right of Nigerians to know how their money is utilized by public institutions. The outcome of this case could establish a crucial precedent for accountability in Nigeria’s financial management sector.