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Update: Supreme Court stops FG from paying allocations to unelected LGs
Next Stay Thung Khe Pass, White Stone Slope, Hoa Binh, Flycam – Nếm TV 40 42 00:00 00:00 / 00:00 10 Sec Published By: Paul Dada
By Paul Dada
A seven-man panel of the Supreme Court on Thursday, ordered the Federal Government to withhold the allocations to local governments run by unelected officials.
The apex court gave this order in a suit filed by Minister of Justice and Attorney- General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, against the states over financial autonomy for the local governments.
The Supreme Court held that it is illegal for governors to dissolve democratically elected local governments.
Governor Sim Fubara of Rivers State recently removed local government chairmen in the state and inaugurated caretaker committees to run the local councils. Local governments in several states are also run by caretaker committees set up by governors.
But the apex court declared that a state government has no power to set up a caretaker committee as only a democratically elected local government is recognised by the law.
“A democratically elected local government is sacrosanct and non-negotiable,” the Supreme Court said.
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The apex court also stopped the Federal Government from further paying LG allocations through the state governments.
In its lead judgment read by Justice Emmanuel Agim, the Supreme Court ordered that the 774 local government councils in the country should manage their funds themselves.
The court said governors abuse the funds by retaining them and using them for other purposes than they are meant.
Fagbemi had filed the suit on behalf of the Federal Government. The suit sought the granting of full autonomy and direct funding to all 774 LGAs in Nigeria.
The state governments, however, argued that the Supreme Court lacked the jurisdiction to hear the case.
