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FG sues 36 governors over LGAs autonomy
The Federal Government has filed a lawsuit against the governors of the 36 states at the Supreme Court over alleged misconduct in the administration of Local Government Areas (LGAs).
The suit, initiated by Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, aims to secure full autonomy for all local governments in Nigeria.
In the lawsuit, the Federal Government seeks a court order to prevent state governors from dissolving democratically elected local government leaders unilaterally and unlawfully. The governors were sued through their respective Attorneys General.
Additionally, the Federal Government requests that funds allocated to local governments be directly disbursed to them from the federation account, bypassing the joint accounts currently managed by the state governors.
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“The suit also demands an injunction to stop governors from forming caretaker committees to manage local government affairs, which contravenes the constitutionally mandated democratic system.”
“The Federal Government presented 27 grounds supporting the suit, emphasizing that the 1999 Constitution recognizes Nigeria as a federation with three tiers of government: federal, state, and local.
Each tier draws funds from the federation account as stipulated by the constitution.”
“The suit argues that the constitution mandates a democratically elected local government system and does not provide for any other form of governance at the local level.”
“The Federal Government contends that governors’ failure to establish such a system, barring a state of emergency, is a deliberate subversion of the constitution”.
Efforts to compel governors to comply with the constitutional requirement for democratically elected local governments have been unsuccessful.
The Federal Government asserts that continuing to disburse funds to states without democratically elected local governments undermines the constitution’s sanctity.
In light of these constitutional violations, the Federal Government maintains that it is not obligated to distribute local government funds to states lacking democratically elected local governments under section 162 of the constitution.
The Supreme Court has scheduled a hearing for May 30.
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