Supreme Court Bars Governors From Collecting LGs Allocations

The Supreme Court has barred State governors from collecting allocations meant for Local Government Councils (LGCs).

To this end, the apex court ordered that the said allocations must be paid directly to the account of Local Government Areas from the Federation account.

The seven-member panel of justices led by Emmanuel Agim on Thursday in Abuja, also barred governors from dissolving democratically elected LGCs in the country, as doing so would amount to a breach of the 1999 Constitution.

Justice Agim lamentated that governments have consistently abused their powers by retaining and using the funds meant for LGAs.

He said that the state governments’ refusal of financial autonomy for Local Lovernments has lingered for over two decades.

Reading the lead judgment, Agim insisted that  states are mandated to ensure that their LGCs are democratically elected, and that governors cannot use their powers to dissolve democratically elected LGCs. 

He said: "The amount standing to the credit of Local Government Councils must be paid by the federation to the local government councils and not by any other person or body.

"An order of injunction is hereby granted restraining the defendants from collecting funds belonging to the local government councils when no democratically elected local government councils are in place.

"An order that henceforth no state government should be paid monies standing to the credit of the local government councils.

"An order for immediate enforcement and compliance with these orders by the state governments and successive governments henceforth."

In The Beginning 

Prior to the judgement, local government funds are paid into a joint account operated by State Governments and Local Governments in their domains.

But the Federal Government had in May, 2024, filed a suit at the supreme court against governors of the 36 States. 

In the suit marked SC/CV/343/2024 and filed by the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, the Federal Government requested that full autonomy should be granted to the 774 Local Governments.

The Federal Government also prayed that the supreme court should authorise the direct transfer of funds from the Federation account to Local Governments in accordance with the constitution.

Part of the requests were: "That the constitution of Nigeria recognises Federal, States and Local Governments as three tiers of government and that the three recognised tiers of government draw funds for their operation and functioning from the federation account created by the constitution.

“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."

Currently, the Federal Government gets 52.68%, States get 26.72% while LGs get 20.60% of the monthly revenue allocated by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC). 

The said amount is disbursed through the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC).