Supreme Court orders state govts to file defence to local govt autonomy suit

The Supreme Court has ordered Nigeria’s 36 state governors to file their respective defence to a suit instituted against them by the federal government seeking full autonomy of local governments in the country.

A seven-member panel of the Supreme Court led by Garba Lawal gave the order on Thursday at the preliminary hearing of the suit in Abuja.

In a short ruling on an application by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, for abrigement of time, the Supreme Court ordered the Attorneys-General of various states representing the state governors to file their individual counter-affidavits to the plaintiff’s originating summons within seven days from Thursday, 30 May.

The presiding justice, Mr Lawal, equally ordered the AGF to file his response to the governors counter affidavits within two days after being served with the filings.

Mr Lawal said all filings and exchange of documents must be concluded on or before 10 June.

The justice ordered that the eight states that had no legal representation at Thursday’s proceedings must be served with fresh hearing notices.

The states are: Borno, Kano, Kogi, Niger, Ogun, Osun, Oyo and Sokoto.

The court adjourned the suit until 13 June for hearing.

Earlier at Thursday’s hearing, the states’ Attorneys-General represented by Ben Odoh, the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Ebonyi State, informed the court that the respondents were yet to see the federal government’s originating summons because the court filings were served at the various States liaison offices in Abuja.

Mr Odoh, who is the Chairman, Body of states’ Attorneys-General, said he was served on 21 May with the originating summons.

He urged the court to grant the respondents 14 days to respond to the suit.

But the Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr Fagbemi, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), prayed the court to order the governors to file their defence within five days.

Background

There are 774 local governments in Nigeria. But their administration has been stifled by the overbearing influence of the state governors.

Funds meant for local governments in the Federation Account are paid monthly to them through their respective state governments. But against expectations, the governors of the states retain the funds in joint accounts in the respective states and only release to the local governments what they wish. The local governments in each state have no say in the use of the funds in the joint accounts controlled by the respective state governors.

The office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice has instituted a suit at the Supreme Court, seeking an order to better guarantee the independence of the local governments.

In the suit marked: SC/CV/343/2024, the federal government urged the court to issue an order prohibiting state governors from embarking on unilateral, arbitrary and unlawful dissolution of democratically elected local government leaders.

The plaintiff also prayed the Supreme Court to make an order permitting the funds standing in the credits of local governments to be directly channelled to them from the Federation Account in line with the provisions of the Constitution as against the alleged unlawful joint accounts created by governors.

In addition, the Attorney-General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, begged the court to stop the governors from further constituting caretaker committees administer the affairs of local governments in violation of the constitutionally recognised and guaranteed democratic system.

Mr Fagbemi further asked for an order of injunction, restraining the governors, their agents and privies, from receiving, spending or tampering with funds released from the Federation Account for the benefits of local governments when no democratically elected local government system is put in place in the states.

Court filings showed that the governors were sued through their respective Attorneys General and Commissioners for Justice.

Grounds of the suit

Laying the legal basis for the case, the federal government contended that the Nigerian federation was a creation of the the Constitution with a president as head of government whose key responsibility is to uphold the provisions of the Constitution.

The chief law officer of the country argued that the Constitution recognises the three tiers of government – federal, state and local.

The plaintiff further contended that “by the provisions of the Constitution, there must be a democratically elected local government system and that the Constitution has not made provisions for any other systems of governance at the local government level other than democratically elected local government system.”

The justice minister said despite the statutory provisions, “governors have failed and refused to put in place a democratically elected local government system even where no state of emergency has been declared to warrant the suspension of democratic institutions in the state.”

“That the failure of the governors to put democratically elected local government system in place, is a deliberate subversion of the 1999 Constitution which they and the President have sworn to uphold.

“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 government is to undermine the sanctity of the 1999 Constitution.

“That in the face of the violations of the 1999 Constitution, the federal government is not obligated under section 162 of the Constitution to pay any State, funds standing to the credit of local governments where no democratically elected local government is in place,” the AGF stated in the suit.

The suit has been slated for hearing on 30 May, but it is not clear if the state governments have filed their defence.

The state governments opposed the moves by the former President Muhammadu Buhari administration to enforce the constitutional provisions stipulating that local governments were entitled to receive the funds meant for them in the Federation Account.

But the state governments, through Mr Fagbemi who was then a private lawyer, filed a suit to stop the specific move by the
Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) to abolish the joint accounts into which the the various state governors were diverting their local governments’ funds.

The governors argued in the suit that the NFIU’s move was illegal under a federal system of government. They said under the federal system, the NFIU, a federal government body, lacked the power to decide for the state governments how to use their funds.