The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to urgently direct the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani, and Secretary of the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF), Yomi Arowosafe, to account for and explain the whereabouts of the alleged missing or diverted N26.9 billion of public funds from the USPF.

SERAP also urged him to direct the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), and appropriate anti-corruption agencies, to promptly and effectively investigate the alleged missing or diverted funds.

The organisation said that anyone suspected of being responsible should face prosecution, as appropriate, if there is sufficient admissible evidence, and that the alleged missing or diverted funds should be fully recovered and remitted to the treasury.

In a statement over the weekend, signed by SERAP Deputy Director Kolawole Oluwadare, the organisation said the USPF is vital to expanding telecommunications access in underserved and rural communities, and that any diversion of the funds undermines the mandate to bridge the digital divide, support infrastructure development, and promote inclusive connectivity.

he group noted that the allegations, which include unaccounted expenditures, failure to remit public funds, irregular contract awards, and payments for services not rendered, point to serious breaches of public trust and raise concerns about systemic failures in financial accountability within the USPF.

According to SERAP, any failure to investigate the allegations and recover any missing or diverted public funds would not only deprive Nigerians of essential services but also frustrate national development objectives and efforts to achieve digital inclusion.

IN another development, youth leaders, under the aegis of the Nigerian Youths in Politics and the Coalition of Patriotic Youth Leaders, yesterday, faulted SERAP over allegedly heating up the polity through its social media reactions to the court case involving the organisation and officials of the Department of State Services (DSS).

The youth group said aggrieved parties should seek legal redress through the courts rather than allegedly misleading the public online.

National Secretary of Nigerian Youths in Politics and Convener of the National Security Summit for Green Assembly Initiative and Nigerian Youths Organisation, Dr Duke Alamboye, who stated this during a media briefing in Abuja, said the group wants a situation in which judges are made to feel threatened.

He, however, accused the organisation of abusing public information channels and of attempting to discredit both the judiciary and security agencies, despite the Federal High Court’s ruling on the matter.

In his remark, Executive Director of the Coalition of Patriotic Youth Leaders, Rikki Nwajiofor, said that parties affected by court judgments could obtain a stay of execution pending an appeal.

Nwajiofor, however, maintained that all court orders, especially Supreme Court judgments, must be obeyed without exception.