In the suit, he is seeking an order to compel the President Muhammadu Buhari administration to recover $40 billion and N481 billion based on the audit carried out by the Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI).
In the originating summons, Falana is asking the court to declare that by the express provisions of Sections 2 (a), (b) and 3 (f) of the NEITI Act, the first defendant (NEITI) is under a legal obligation to recover the unremitted sums of $22.06 billion and N481.75 billion owed the federal government by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the Nigeria Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) and other oil and gas companies operating in Nigeria.
The claimant also wants the court to declare that by the express provisions of Sections 2 (a), (b) and 3 (f) of the NEITI Act, the first defendant is under a legal obligation to recover the sum of $28 billion lost in revenues that was due to the federal government but vanished on account of failure to review the terms of the 1993 production sharing contracts (PSCs) with international oil companies (IOCs) in line with Section 16 (2) of the Deep Offshore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contract Act, Cap D3, Laws of the Federation, 2004.
In the affidavit in support of the originating summons, the senior lawyer stated that he had confirmed from NEITI that the federal government had failed to recover the outstanding $22.06 billion and N481.75 billion owed by the NNPC, NPDC and other unremitted payments by some IOCs.
Falana, who attached the audited reports of the NEITI to the supporting affidavit, further held that Nigeria was losing much-needed revenues due to the alleged failure of the federal government to ensure that all payments due to it from extractive industry companies involved in the PSCs, including taxes, royalties, dividends, bonuses, penalties, levies and the likes, were duly paid.
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