The Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction to disclose the names of beneficiaries of its Conditional Cash Transfer Programme in Ondo State, conducted between November 2024 and May 2025.

Justice Binta Nyako, in a judgment delivered on Monday, held that the Ministry violated the Freedom of Information Act, 2011, by refusing to grant access to the requested details.

She ordered the Ministry to furnish the applicant, Myson Nejo, with the full information within seven days of the ruling.

Nejo, a legal practitioner and governorship candidate of the African Democratic Congress in the November 2024 Ondo State election, had filed the suit FHC/ABJ/CS/1222/2025 against the Ministry after it failed to respond to his formal request for information on the CCT programme.

The applicant, through his lawyer, Vincent Adodo, sought three reliefs, including N30m in damages for the Ministry’s failure to provide the requested data.

In May 2025, The Punch had reported that then Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, now National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, claimed that about six million Nigerians had benefited from the conditional cash transfer programme within six months.

Following the publication, Nejo, citing the FOI Act, wrote to the Ministry requesting the names of beneficiaries and the amount disbursed to each of the 18 local government areas in Ondo State.

In response, the National Coordinator of the National Social Investment Programme Agency acknowledged receipt of the letter and said the agency was “going through its archives” to compile the requested data.

However, after months of silence, Nejo filed the suit to compel disclosure.

At Monday’s proceedings, Adodo moved the motion on notice, urging the court to compel the Ministry to release the requested information in the interest of transparency and accountability.

Counsel to the Ministry, Ibrahim Moddibo, who led Noro Gwom, opposed the application, arguing that the disclosure of beneficiaries’ names would amount to an invasion of privacy, which is exempted under the FOI Act.

In his reply on points of law, Adodo contended that the public interest in disclosing how public funds were spent outweighed any potential inconvenience or privacy concern.

He urged the court to uphold the principle of transparency in governance.

In her judgment, Justice Nyako agreed with the applicant’s argument, holding that the Ministry had a legal obligation to release the requested information under the FOI Act.

The court ruled that the plaintiff was entitled to access the records and ordered the Ministry to provide the full list of beneficiaries and financial details within seven days.

Justice Nyako also awarded N2m in damages against the Ministry for failing to comply with the FOI request, describing the non-disclosure as “a breach of the applicant’s statutory right to information.”

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Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has said he predicted mass revocation of visas and green cards by the United States Government.

In an interview published by BBC News Pidgin on Facebook on Wednesday, the world-acclaimed writer, whose visa was recently revoked by the US, said he knew that once Donald Trump got into office as President, “the first thing he will do is cancel even the green cards.”

Soyinka said, “This is a petty-minded dictator, you see how he deals with his objects of hate. We saw that dark side of the American side. There were more killings, extrajudicial killings by the police of black people, of minorities, during that build-up, during the campaign, and on account of hate rhetoric, the hate rhetoric of this individual.

“I saw it and I said, listen very carefully — and you can go and check this –I said, ‘When that man comes to power, the first thing he will do is cancel even the green cards’.”

Soyinka’s comment comes amid diplomatic tension between Nigeria and the US after Trump at the weekend designated Nigeria a “Country of Particular Concern,” citing alleged Christian genocide in the country.

Trump, in a series of X posts, also warned that if the Nigerian government fails to stop killings, the US would intervene militarity, coming into Nigeria ‘gun-ablazing’, a comment that has generated widespread panic and pushback both locally and internationally.

Soyinka, a vocal critic of Trump, had threatened ahead of Trump’s first inauguration to tear his Green Card once Trump was sworn in, a threat the Nobel laureate has since carried out.

“I have already done it, I have disengaged (from the United States). I have done what I said I would do,” Soyinka, who was 82 years old, said then on the sidelines of an education conference at the University of Johannesburg, according to AFP.

He added, “I had a horror of what is to come with Trump… I threw away the (green) card, and I have relocated, and I’m back to where I have always been” – meaning his homeland, Nigeria.

In July this year,  the US Department of State announced an update to its non-immigrant visa policy for Nigerian citizens.

According to a press release issued by the U.S. Embassy in Abuja, “most non-immigrant and non-diplomatic visas issued to citizens of Nigeria will be single-entry visas with a three-month validity period.”

Soyinka had, during a media parley last Tuesday in Lagos, disclosed the revocation of his B1/B2 visa by the US Embassy.

The US Consulate announced the revocation of the visa in a letter addressed to Soyinka dated October 23, 2025.

The Consulate further requested Soyinka to bring his visa to the Lagos Embassy “for physical cancellation,” a request the Nobel laureate described as “a joke.”

“If you have plans to travel to the United States, you must apply again to re-establish your qualifications for a new non-immigrant visa,” the letter added.

While Soyinka said he did not know the reason for the revocation of his visa, the US Mission in Nigeria clarified last Thursday in response to an inquiry from The PUNCH that visas granted by the country are a privilege, not a right.

While the Mission noted that it would not discuss details of individual visas, its spokesperson said, “Visas are a privilege, not a right. Every country, including the United States, can determine who enters its borders. Visas may be revoked at any time, at the discretion of the U.S. government, whenever circumstances warrant.”

Speaking further in the interview with the BBC, Soyinka, who had vowed that he would never reapply for a US visa, said he had since left the country because he would not allow himself to be “kicked out.”

“I said I’m not going to wait to be told to come for a reinterview or simply told, ‘Get out! The green card is cancelled!’ That’s all. People failed to understand. Even though I said it, people failed to accept it. I said I don’t like to be kicked out; I like to kick myself out, it’s more dignified,” the 91-year-old author and playwright said.

He said he knew he would not be able to resist comments on the Trump administration.

“I knew I would not be able to resist making comments on what I knew would happen, and sure enough, he did not disappoint me.”

The Nobel laureate also touched on an incident that happened prior to the revocation of his visa. He spoke of how he got a letter from the US Internal Revenue Service notifying him of a tax audit.

“After he took office, I got a letter from the IRS telling me to report for an audit. The coincidence for me was very impressive,” he said.

Soyinka had during the media parley in Lagos, given an insight into the tax audit, which he said he had no problem with.

He told journalists, “I think it’s important for me to begin by reminding us about the history of this visa, which was issued when an accident happened to my Green Card, so it became no longer valid.

“Unfortunately, or fortunately, whichever way you want to look at it, not long after that, maybe by accident or maybe it’s related or not, I got a letter from the Internal Revenue Service of the United States of America saying that an audit of my tax return was about to take place, going back about five years.”

He noted that audits are done periodically just to make sure one is not cheating, “and that’s okay.”

He narrated, “So I went to the embassy to say this is the letter I just received from the Internal Revenue Service. My Green Card is no longer usable. I don’t want to be advertised as a tax dodger owing the United States money and being chased all over the world with letters and police, and I said I needed to go in and see the audit, and that’s exactly what happened.”

Soyinka has maintained that he has no issue with members of the US Embassy or the American people, as he noted he was always treated with courtesy anytime he was at the embassy.

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Community chiefs in Igbogila, Yewa North Local Government Area of Ogun State, have accused a state lawmaker, Adegoke Adeyanju, popularly called Awoso, of attempting to influence the selection of the town’s next monarch, a claim the legislator has strongly denied.

At a press conference held at the Ogun State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists secretariat, the chiefs alleged that Adeyanju was “precipitating crisis” in the community in his bid to install Daniel Opebiyi as the next Olu of Igbogila.

Led by Chief Semiu Bammeke and supported by Bashorun Atanda Ajibade and the Akogun of Igbogila, Chief Charles Olaotan, the elders further accused the lawmaker of conniving with relatives of the late monarch, Oba Ebenezer Olanloye, to remove five chiefs when the monarch was bedridden.

Bammeke said the traditional chiefs believed the suspension letters were not authorised by the late ruler and therefore sought forensic analysis, which he claimed confirmed the signatures were forged.

He said, “On the issue of the latest protest by some individuals, it is no more than the handiwork of Honourable Adegoke Adeyanju, fondly called Awoso. He is determined to set the whole town on fire.”

He added, “But for the wisdom of the chiefs and elders in the town, Awoso and his few hirelings would have burnt down the whole town. It is no more gainsaying that Awoso has weaponised his desperation with naked lies… against any person he believes is standing in his way to install the new Olu of Igbogila.”

The chiefs further accused the lawmaker of helping to install four new kingmakers to replace the suspended chiefs and sponsoring protests in the town to cause unrest.

They called on Governor Dapo Abiodun and the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs to intervene to prevent a breakdown of law and order.

However, Adeyanju denied all allegations, insisting he has no preferred candidate and only wants a monarch installed quickly after more than three years without one.

He said, “The truth is that the suspended chiefs were duly removed by the late traditional ruler, Oba Ebenezer Olanloye, and the installation of those who replaced these chiefs was also done by the late Kabiyesi. The deputy governor even sent representatives during the installation.”

He further argued that forensic reports exist on both sides to support the authenticity of the suspension letters, saying, “If they are claiming to have a forensic report, the other party also has a forensic report…”

Adeyanju added, “I am an indigene of the town as well as one of the palace chiefs but not a kingmaker. So, I am not hell-bent on installing any candidate.”

He denied sponsoring protests, explaining, “The protest was by community members because they felt that the community had stayed for over three years without a traditional ruler and there is no end in sight to the stalemate.”

He urged the governor to convene a meeting of all parties and the Yewa Traditional Council so the matter could be resolved.

Residents recently staged a demonstration over the prolonged obaship dispute, lamenting stagnation in community development.

Carrying placards reading “Enough is Enough,” “We are tired of court cases,” “Give us a substantive king in Igbogila,” and “Gov. Abiodun come to our rescue,” protesters urged urgent government intervention.

One of them, Mrs Olusola Adebayo, said the crisis was slowing growth.

“We are not happy because the lack of leadership is hindering our community’s growth… Those suspended chiefs have been making our town suffer through the crisis,” she said.

“What we want is for Governor Dapo Abiodun to listen to the plight of the youth. We want a monarch in Igbogila so that our town can develop and grow significantly.”

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