The Federal Government will from July withhold local government allocations to Rivers, Enugu, Kano, Cross-River, and 16 other states in compliance with the Supreme Court judgement.
The apex court on Thursday delivered a judgment in the local government autonomy suit filed by the Attorney General of the Federation, AGF, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, on behalf of the Nigerian Government, barring the Federal Government from releasing allocations to local governments governed by unelected officials appointed by the state governors.
In the judgment, Justice Emmanuel Agim barred the Federal Government from further paying LG allocations through the state governments, noting that the practice had been abused by the governors.
Justice Agim accused the state governors of retaining allocations and utilising them as they please, to the detriment of the local government councils.
Following the judgment, 20 states that have no elected local government chairmen stand barred from receiving local government allocations from July until they conduct elections.
The states are Jigawa, Rivers, Anambra, Imo, Kwara, Zamfara, Bauchi, Plateau, Abia, Enugu, Katsina, Kano, Sokoto, Yobe, Ondo, Osun, Delta, Akwa-Ibom, Cross River, Benue.
In June, the government of Jigawa State dissolved the elected council chairmen of the 27 local governments after the state house of assembly amended the local government law.
Similarly, the Governor of Rivers State, Siminalayi Fubara, deliberately refused to release funds to the state electoral commission for the conduct of LGA election before the expiration of the tenure of council chairmen elected under the administration of his predecessor because of his intention to appoint caretaker chairmen, as part of his strategies to develop a political structure of his own , after falling out with the political structure that brought him to power.
In June, Anambra State governor, Charles Soludo, through the state’s House of Assembly, also appointed transition committee chairmen and councillors for the 21 local government areas of the state.
By implication, these states will not receive further allocations per the Supreme Court judgment.
The 36 states and the FCT received N293.82bn from the federal government on behalf of the 774 local government areas in the country for the month of July.