The Managing Director of the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority, NEPZA, Prof. Adesoji Adesugba has said a 14-man Freedom of Information Act Committee would be trained to increase their capacities in tracking information within the system with the view of releasing same to the public.
Adesugba assured on Tuesday while inaugurating a 14-man Freedom of Information Act Committee in Abuja said talks were underway with the Ethics and Governance Institute from the Federal Ministry of Justice to build the capacity of the committee.
In a press release issued by the Head, Corporate ommunications, NEPZA, Martins Odeh, the MD said this will help scale up the Authority’s compliance level in Ethics and Governance in line with Federal Government specifications on ease of business would henceforth be the Authority’s priority objective.
Adesugba said it was expected that the new development would place the Authority on integrity weighing scale, adding that the move would also enhance transparency, integrity, accountability, and Due Process.
According to him, the Authority has against it two pending lawsuits for inadvertently failing to respond to demands for information by the litigants, just as we have numerous such requests that are yet to be treated.
He called on those who instituted the lawsuits to withdraw same following our moves to do things differently. I also plead with those whose requests are yet to be processed to bear with us.
He said he has gone through the FOI Act, and I can see that the Act can easily be breached because of the limited number of days one is expected to respond, but we must comply with the law.
“The committee will henceforth be responsible for the receiving and processing of requests within the stipulated period of seven days.
