Supreme Court justices
The Supreme Court on Thursday, reserved judgment in the suit filed by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) on behalf of the Federal Government, against the 36 State Governors of the federation.
The suit is seeking full autonomy for the 774 local governments in the country.
In the suit, marked SC/CV/343/2024, the Federal Government wants the apex court to enforce the autonomy of the local government by, among other things, stopping state governors from appointing caretaker committees to administer local governments in their states.
The Federal Government wants the Supreme Court to rule that any local government manned by a caretaker committee instead of an elected local government chairman and councillors should have their funds from the Federation Account withheld.
It also wants the court to rule that funds due to local governments from the Federation Account should be paid directly to them instead of through the state government to guarantee their autonomy.
The seven-man panel, of the apex court led by Justice Garba Lawal, announced that parties in the matter would be communicated when the judgment was ready after parties in the suit adopted their processes.
All 36 states in their response opposed the FG’s suit and appealed to the court to throw out the suit.
AGF on his part asked the apex court to grant all the reliefs sought by the federal government in the suit.
The AGF said, “I adopt and rely on these processes. I urge my lords to overrule the various objections and grant the originating summons.”
