Nigeria’s Supreme Court has ordered the 36 State Governors to file their respective defence to a suit instituted against them by the Federal Government.
The Federal Government is seeking for full autonomy for the 774 local governments in the country.
The court also ordered the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Lateef Fagbemi, to file his reply within two days, after receipt of their defence.
Leading a seven-man panel, Justice Garba Lawal issued the order while ruling on an application for abridgment of time argued by the AGF.
Justice Lawal said that the decision of the court was predicated on the national urgency of the suit and the non-objection from the Attorneys General of the states of the Federation.
The Supreme Court held that filing of all processes and exchanging of same must be completed within the time and subsequently fixed June 13 for hearing of the suit.
Justice lawal ordered that the eight states that were not in attendance at Thursday’s proceedings must be served with fresh hearing notice.
The states whose Attorney’s General were absent in court, despite being served with hearing notice include Borno, Kano, Kogi, Niger, Ogun, Osun, Oyo and Sokoto.
The Federal Government is seeking full autonomy for all local government areas in the country.
In suit, the Federal Government specifically prayed the court to issue an order, prohibiting state governors from embarking on unilateral, arbitrary and unlawful dissolution of democratically elected local government leaders.
The suit is also asking for 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.
The Federal Government also prayed the Supreme Court for an order stopping governors from further constituting caretaker committees to run the affairs of local governments as against the constitutionally recognized and guaranteed democratic system.
It equally applied 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.
LG Autonomy: Supreme Court Gives States One Week To File Defence
