Supreme Court Bars Governors From Dissolving Democratically Elected LGCs
By Sunday Etuka, Abuja
The Supreme Court of Nigeria has barred the 36 State Governors from dissolving democratically elected Local Government Councils in the Country.
This is even as it declared that it was unconstitutional to take the funds meant for local government administrations in the name of joint accounts.
Justice Emmanuel Agim who delivered the lead judgment on Thursday held that it would amount to a breach of the 1999 Constitution for the state governors to lord it over the 774 local government councils in the country.
He, therefore, ruled that the local government be allowed to get their funds directly from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), and managed it themselves.
Recall that the federal government took the state governors to the Supreme Court over alleged maladministration of the local governments in the country.
In a suit filed by the Attorney-General of the Federation, and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, the federal government demanded full autonomy for all the local governments, and an order to restrain the state governors from unlawful dissolution of democratically elected local government Executives.
The suit is also seeking for an order to allow the local government get their shares directly from the federation account in line with the provisions of the constitution as against the current practice of joint accounts being operated by the governors.
It prayed the Supreme Court to stop the governors from constituting caretaker committees to run the affairs of local governments as against the constitutionally recognised and guaranteed democratic system.
