The Supreme Court has reserved its judgment on a case brought by the Federal Government seeking full autonomy for the 774 local governments in Nigeria. A seven-member panel led by Justice Garba Lawal announced on Thursday that the matter was ready for judgment after hearing arguments from the governors of the 36 states, who were represented by their respective attorney-generals.
The states filed preliminary objections requesting the dismissal of the suit with substantial costs, arguing that the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, lacked the legal standing to initiate the action. They also claimed that their right to a fair hearing was breached when they were not served with a copy of a further affidavit filed in support of the suit. Additionally, some states maintained that they already have democratically elected local government officials, rendering the Federal Government’s suit an abuse of the judicial process.
The Federal Government’s suit, marked SC/CV/343/2024, seeks to grant full autonomy to local governments as the third tier of government. It calls for an order prohibiting state governors from dissolving democratically elected local government leaders and demands that funds allocated to local governments be channeled directly from the Federation Account, bypassing the joint accounts created by governors. The suit also requests an injunction to prevent governors from forming caretaker committees to manage local government affairs.
In a related development, the Supreme Court on Thursday rejected applications from the Speakers of some state Houses of Assembly to join the case as interested parties. The court indicated it would notify all parties of the judgment date in due course.
