BREAKING: Supreme Court Grants Full Autonomy To LGAs
……. declares LG caretaker committees illegal
The Supreme Court has granted financial automy to local government councils, scrapped the state and local government joint accounts and directed governors to stop tampering with the finances of the local administration.
The Supreme Court also ordered the Federal Government to henceforth remit all monies meant for the 774 Local Government Areas in the country, direct to their bank accounts.
The apex court ruled that it is illegal and unconstitutional for governors to continue to receive and seize funds allocated to the LGAs.
It maintained that the “dubious practice” which has gone on for over two decades, was a clear violation of Section 162 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
In its lead judgement that was delivered by Justice Emmanuel Agim, the apex court held that no House of Assembly of any state has the power to make laws that could, in any manner, interfere with monies meant for the LGAs.
“Demands of justice require a progressive interpretation of the law. It is the position of this court that the federation can pay LGA allocations to the LGAs directly or pay them through the states.
“In this case, since paying them through states has not worked, justice of this case demands that LGA allocations from the federation account should henceforth be paid directly to the LGAs,” the apex court held.
The court also stressed that the law mandated that LGAs must be governed by democratically elected officials, as such the appointment of caretaker committees by governors to run the affairs of the LGAs was unconstitutional.
It held that the 36 states are under obligation to ensure democratic governance at the third tier of government.
The judgement followed a suit the Federal Government filed to secure financial autonomy for the LGAs.
Earlier, the court dismissed preliminary objections the state governors filed to challenge the competence of the suit.
