The Supreme Court has barred all state governors in Nigeria from dissolving democratically elected Local Government (LG) councils in the country.
This is contained in a landmark judgement delivered by Justice Emmanuel Agim on Thursday in which he described the agelong practice by governors as a violation of the 1999 Constitution.
The apex court also ruled that the Nigerian Government must pay funds allocated to Local Governments directly to the respective Local Government Areas, which are managed by democratically elected officials.
The court also declared that it is unconstitutional for State Governments to withhold and utilise allocations meant for Local Government Areas without transferring the funds to them, as mandated by Section 162(3) of the Constitution.
This ruling aims to ensure that Local Governments receive their rightful allocations, promoting decentralisation and grassroots development.
In the suit filed by the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), the Federal Government sought an order preventing the governors from arbitrarily dissolving democratically elected councils.
The suit by the AGF was on 27 grounds.
The apex court directed that Local Government allocations from the Federation Account should be paid directly to them henceforth, and not to state government coffers.
The Supreme Court in June, reserved its judgement in a lawsuit brought by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) to call for local governments’ autonomy in the country.
A seven-man panel of the apex court led by Justice Garba Lawal made this known on after hearing the case in which all the 36 state governors were made the defendants by the Federal Government.
The suit filed by Fagbemi seeks full autonomy for the local government areas in the country.
