On Thursday, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Federal Government against the 36 State Governors of the Federation. The Supreme Court has reserved its decision in this case.
The lawsuit aims to grant all 774 municipal governments in the nation complete authority.
The Federal Government is requesting that the Supreme Court uphold local government autonomy in the litigation, SC/CV/343/2024, by prohibiting state governors from designating caretaker committees to oversee local governments inside their states, among other measures.
The federal government is requesting that the Supreme Court decide that any local government that does not have an elected local government chairman and council members, but is instead run by a caretaker committee, should not be allowed to receive monies from the Federation Account.
The court’s ruling is sought to ensure local governments’ autonomy by paying them directly from the Federation Account rather than through the state government.
When the verdict was ready, the parties involved in the suit will be notified, according to the seven-member panel of the highest court, which was presided over by Justice Garba Lawal.
In their reply, all 36 states contested the FG’s lawsuit and asked the court to dismiss it.
On his part, AGF requested that the supreme court grant all of the relief that the federal government was requesting in the lawsuit.
“I adopt and rely on these processes,” declared the AGF. I implore my lords to uphold the original summons and disregard the different arguments.
Although many states contended that they were not granted a just trial and were not served, the Attorney General made it clear that he provided the defendants with copies of the affidavits through emails and WhatsApp.
In addition, he said, the defendants were served by the court bailiff at their several state liaison offices located in Abuja.
The Federal Government is requesting that the Supreme Court impose “an order prohibiting state governors from unilateral, arbitrary, and unlawful dissolution of democratically elected local government leaders for local governments,” according to reports on the petition.
The federal government accused the state governors of egregious wrongdoing and power abuse in the lawsuit, which was anticipated on 27 grounds.
In the original summons, the Federation of Governments (FG) requested to the Supreme Court for an order that clearly stated that money from the Federation Account that was standing to the credit of local governments should be given to the local governments directly, bypassing the state governments.
“An order stopping governors from constituting caretaker committees to run the affairs of local governments as against the Constitutionally recognized and guaranteed democratic system” was another request made by the federal government.
As a result, the AGF urged the supreme court to apply sections 1, 4, 5, 7, and 14 of the Constitution to hold that the governors of each state and their Houses of Assembly are required to guarantee a democratic system of governance at the third level of government in Nigeria, as well as to hold that the governors are not authorized to dissolve locally elected local government councils.
He also urged the declaration that “the dissolution of democratically elected local government councils by the governors or anyone using the state powers derivable from laws enacted by the state Houses of Assembly or any Executive Order is unlawful, unconstitutional, null and void,” invoking sections 1, 4, 5, 7, and 14 of the Constitution.
