Present Draft Information Law to Edo House of Assembly, ANEEJ Urges Governor Obaseki.

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By Lucky Isibor.


The Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice, ANEEJ has called on the Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki to present the draft Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill recently prepared by stakeholders as an executive Bill to the Edo State House of Assembly for consideration and passage.
Executive Director of ANEEJ, the Rev. David Ugolor, made the call last wednesday, 28 April at a news conference held in Benin City to round off activities under its Civil Society Advocacy to Support Anti-corruption and Rule of Law in Nigeria (CASARN) project implemented by the organization in collaboration with the State Government, other Civil Society Organisations and Stakeholders in the state.


Represented by his deputy, Mr. Leo Atakpu, the ANEEJ helmsman said the organization has implemented a number of activities and has been involved in series of initiatives to advance governance and anti-corruption in Edo State and in Nigeria at large. 

“ANEEJ has trained CSOs and journalists on several issues including Open Government Partnership (OGP) and its commitments, open contracting, public procurement observation and contract monitoring in Edo State, FOI issues and advocacy, budgeting and budget/project monitoring."

The passage of the Freedom of Information Law in Edo State will enhance the participation of Civil Society Organisations and other stakeholders in holding govermenmet accountable to the people in line with the state govermenmet's committment to the Open Governance Partnership (OGP) which it signed to in 2018.


He further noted that through the implementation of the CASARN project,
“ANEEJ and other project partners also had fruitful engagement with government agencies including Edo State Public Procurement Agency, Bureau of Public Procurement, Federal Ministry of Justice and the Asset Recovery and Management Unit, Edo State Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, Edo State Ministry of Justice and several other MDAs both in Edo State and at the national level, Ugolor said.
“ANEEJ has also worked with other stakeholders to develop an Integrity and Accountability Strategy for Edo State which has been validated by stakeholders. An implementation structure and implementation plan has equally been developed which reflects CSOs participation. To facilitate civil society organisation’s involvement in the implementation of the strategy, a CSO monitoring and evaluation framework has been designed. This will support an independent monitoring of the implementation of the framework. It is expected that when this strategy has been finally approved by the Edo State government, it will contribute significantly to anti-corruption drive and improve CSOs participation in the fight against corruption."

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