A seven-member panel of the Supreme Court led by Justice Garba Lawal has reserved judgment in the suit filed by the attorney-general of the federation and minister of justice, Mr Lateef Fagbemi on behalf of the federal government, against the 36 state governors of the federation.
Lawal announced on Thursday that parties in the matter would be communicated when the judgment was ready after parties in the suit adopted their processes.
The suit marked SC/CV/343/2024 seeks full autonomy for the 774 local governments in the country.
The federal government further 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.
Besides, it wants the Supreme Court to issue an order prohibiting state governors from unilateral, arbitrary and unlawful dissolution of democratically elected local government leaders for local governments.”
It also wants the court to rule that local governments manned by a caretaker committee instead of an elected local government chairman and councillors should have their funds from the federation account withheld.
It further asks 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.
All the 36 states in their response opposed the federal government’s suit and appealed to the court to throw out the suit.
For his part, Fagbemi prayed the court to grant all the reliefs sought by the federal government in the suit.
“I adopt and rely on these processes. I urge my lords to overrule the various objections and grant the originating summons,” he said.
While some states claimed that they were denied a fair hearing and weren’t served, the attorney general clarified that he sent copies of the affidavits to the defendants via WhatsApp and emails.
He added that the court bailiff also served the defendants in their various state liaison offices in Abuja.
In the suit predicated on 27 grounds, the federal government accused the state governors of gross misconduct and abuse of power.
In the originating summons, the federal government prayed the Supreme Court to make an order expressly stating that funds standing to the credit of local governments from the federation account should be paid directly to the local governments rather than through the state governments.
The federal government further sought “an order stopping governors from constituting caretaker committees to run the affairs of local governments as against the constitutionally recognised and guaranteed democratic system.”
Fagbemi urged the apex court to invoke sections 1, 4, 5, 7 and 14 of the Constitution to declare that the state governors and state houses of assembly are under obligation to ensure a democratic system at the third tier of government in Nigeria and to also invoke the same sections to hold that the governors cannot lawfully dissolve democratically elected local government councils.
He further urged the court to invoke sections 1, 4, 5, 7 and 14 of the Constitution to declare that “the dissolution of democratically elected local government councils by the governors or anyone using the state powers derivable from laws enacted by the state houses of assembly or any executive order is unlawful, unconstitutional, null and void.”
