LG Autonomy: States’ retention of LG’s federation funds unconstitutional, Supreme Court says in judgement

A seven-man panel of the Supreme Court on Thursday held that it was unconstitutional for states to retain and use money from the federation account on behalf of the Local Governments.

Justice Emmanuel Agim, gave this verdict while delivering judgement on Thursday in the suit filed by the Federal Government against the 36 state governors seeking full autonomy for the 774 local governments in the country.

Lateef Fagbemi, the Attorney-General of the Federation and minister of Justice in a suit marked SC/CV/343/2024, prayed the apex Court for an order prohibiting state governors from unilaterally, arbitrarily, and unlawfully dissolving democratically elected local government leaders.

The AGF also prayed the Supreme Court for an order permitting funds allocated to local governments be directly transferred from the federation account to the LGAs, as stipulated by the constitution, instead of being funded through allegedly unlawful joint accounts created by the governors.

The originating summons read, “That by the provisions of the constitution, there must be a democratically elected local government system and that the constitution has not made provisions for any other systems of governance at the local government level other than the democratically elected local government system.

“That in the face of the clear provisions of the constitution, the governors have failed and refused to put in place a democratically elected local government system even where no state of emergency has been declared to warrant the suspension of democratic institutions in the state.

“That the failure of the governors to put democratically elected local government system in place is a deliberate subversion of the 1999 Constitution which they and the President have sworn to uphold.

“That all efforts to make the governors comply with the dictates of the 1999 Constitution in terms of putting in place a democratically elected local government system has not yielded any result and that to continue to disburse funds from the federation account to governors for non-existing democratically elected local governments is to undermine the sanctity of the 1999 constitution.”

The AGF asked the apex court to invoke sections 1, 4, 5, 7 and 14 of the Constitution to declare that the governors and state houses of assembly are under obligation to ensure democratically elected systems at the third tier.

But three states including Delta, Ogun, Osun were absent as the Supreme Court delivered judgment in the suit filed by the Federal Government against the 36 state governors seeking full autonomy for the 774 local governments in the country.

During proceedings on Thursday, other states announced appearances through their respective Attorneys-Generals except the three states, who had no legal representation and did not send any notification to thee court

Recall the seven-man panel of the apex court led by Justice Garba Lawal had earlier reserved its judgment on the suit at the last proceedings on June 13.

When a date for judgement was decided, the apex court notified all parties in the suit through their respective representatives.