A Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to pay Media Rights Agenda (MRA) N1 million as damages for wrongful denial of access to information and directed the apex bank to also make available to the organisation all the information it requested regarding the bank’s data protection policies and practices.
Delivering judgment Wednesday in a suit instituted by MRA against the CBN, the CBN governor and the attorney-general of the federation, Justice Donatus Uwaezuoke Okorowo held that the failure of the CBN to disclose or make available to MRA the information it requested in a letter dated May 22, 2020 amounted to a violation of its right of access to information established and guaranteed by Sections 1(1) and 4 of the Freedom of Information Act, 2011 and also constituted a wrongful denial of access to information under section 7(5) of the Act.
MRA, a non-governmental organisation, filed the suit on June 15, 2020, through its lawyer, Mr. Darlington Onyekwere, challenging the CBN’s refusal to disclose the information it applied for and asking the court to compel the bank and its governor to make available the information it requested in its letter to the bank.
In the letter, it had asked, among other things, for copies of all the CBN’s data protection policies issued in conformity with the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR), 2019; the name and contact details of the CBN’s data protection officer, designated in accordance with the NDPR and its relevant data privacy instruments and data protection directives.
It had also asked for details of all capacity building training or other capacity building activities undertaken for the data protection officer and other CBN personnel involved in any form of data processing since the issuance of the NDPR; the number of persons or individuals whose personal data it processes on an annual basis, and a report from a detailed audit it conducted of its privacy and data protection practices in accordance with the NDPR.
In his judgment, Justice Okorowo agreed with MRA that the failure of the CBN to give a written notice to the organisation that access to all or part of the information requested would not be granted as well as its failure to state the reasons for its denial of access and the section of the Act under which the denial was made amounted to a violation of section 4(b) of the Act.
Accordingly, he issued an order compelling the bank to make all the information requested by MRA available to the organisation.
The judge also ruled that MRA was entitled to damages for the unlawful violation of its right of access to information and granted the organisation’s claim of N1 million as damages.
However, he refused MRA’s request for an order directing the attorney-general of the federation to initiate criminal proceedings against the CBN for the offence of wrongful denial of access to information under Section 7(5) of the FOI Act.
