The Federal Government and Governors of the 36 States of the federation as well as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) will soon know fate over the suit seeking financial autonomy of the 774 local government councils in Nigeria.
Supreme Court presided over by Justice Mohammed Lawal Garba has reserved judgment in the matter indefinitely after lawyers to parties adopted their final written addresses and made final submissions in furtherance of their arguments on Thursday.
The suit was filed for the Federal Government by the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), against States in pertaining to the dispute over the autonomy of Local Governments in the country.
The seven-member panel said a date for the judgment will be conveyed to applicant and respondents through their counsel.
The Attorneys- General of the 36 states had filed an objection to the local government funds suit instituted by the Federal Government at the Supreme Court, asking the court to dismiss the suit in its entirety after the seven-man panel of the apex court led by Justice Garba Lawal, on May 30, 2024, gave the state attorneys-general, who are the defendants, a seven – day grace to file their defence.
The court also ordered all the state AGs to be in court on the adjourned date, today after he had ruled in the application for abridgement of time argued by Fagbemi.
The apex court also directed the AGF to file his reply upon receipt of the governors’ defence within two days.
In the suit, the Federal Government is seeking full autonomy for all local government councils in the country over alleged misconduct in the administration of local government councils.
The government specifically prayed the court to issue an order prohibiting state governors from embarking on unilateral, arbitrary and unlawful dissolution of democratically elected local government leaders.
Fagbemi urged the court to grant an order to withhold the funds meant for the local governments in such states that unlawfully dissolve democratically elected local government officials and run them through illegal transitional implementation committees.
He also prayed the Supreme Court for an order to allow the monthly allocations of LGs to be directly paid to them from the Federation Account in line with the provisions of the Constitution as against the alleged unlawful joint accounts created by governors.
But the states in their defence argued that the Supreme Court had no jurisdiction to entertain the suit.
In a unanimous objection, the defendants faulted the AGF for instituting the case.
