A senior Nigerian lawyer, Femi Falana, says he would file a suit on Monday against the federal government over alleged corruption in the award of a contract for the production of the Combined Expatriate Residence Permit and Alien Card (CERPAC).
This is also as the Special Presidential Investigation Panel (SPIP) for the Recovery of Public Property (RPP) said it is investigating the matter.
Those Falana want to drag to court are the Ministry of Interior, the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and the Nigeria Immigration Service, he said on Saturday.
Particularly, Falana accused the Minister of Interior, Abdurahman Dambazau, of illegally increasing the CERPAC fee from $1,000 to $2,000, December last year.
He said the company handling the contract, Continental Transfert Technique Limited (Contec), would also be joined in the suit.
“We’re going to court on Monday,” he said weeks after he had vowed in a petition to initiate court proceedings if the allegations of fraud and abuses he raised were not investigated.
Late January, Mr Falana in a petition asked the Minister for Finance, Zainab Ahmed, to probe the contract between the Ministry of Interior and Contec after the CERPAC was hiked 100 per cent to $2,000 in December.
PREMIUM TIMES understands that the service provider for the production of CERPAC, Contec, wrote the interior ministry on December 11, 2018, seeking a review of the fee charged for the cards from $1,000 to $2,000.
Two days after, December 13, the ministry replied through the permanent secretary, Mohammed Bello. In the letter obtained by Premium Times, Mr Bello conveyed the approval of the minister, Mr Dambazau, to the company.
