The lawmaker representing Anambra North in the National Assembly, Tony Nwoye, on Wednesday called for the enforcement recent Supreme Court verdict on local government economy.
In July, the Supreme Court granted autonomy to all the 774 local government areas in the country following a suit filed by the federal government through the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation.
Three months later, Nwoye asked the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Kudirat Kekere-Ekun and the Attorney General of the Federation to enforce the recent Supreme Court verdict on local government economy.
“This money that comes from the Federal Government which the Supreme Court has given judgement directly, we are calling on the Attorney General of the Federation, we are calling on all the security agencies to ensure that the judgement of the Supreme Court is obeyed,” he said.
Obey Court Ruling
The Senate on Wednesday asked state and local governments to immediately comply with the Supreme Court judgement, particularly relating to local government accounts and the funds given directly to them.
The Senate also resolved to take immediate steps to alter sections of the Constitution to give full autonomy to local government administration in the country.
The resolutions was announced by the Deputy Senate president, Senator Jibrin Barau, Lawmakers upon reconvening from a closed door session where the Chamber debated attempts by some state governments to circumvent the ruling of the Supreme Court on July 11.
This was after Senator Tony Nwoye had raised the urgent need to halt the implementation of actions of state governments using their state Houses of Assembly, to enact laws that breach constitutional provisions, and the Supreme Court judgment on granting financial autonomy to local governments in line with the provisions of the constitution.
The motion was co-sponsored by 12 other senators on an alleged move by some state governments to circumvent implementation of the judgement through counter laws from their respective state House of Assembly.
The motion says, “Further concerned that the modus Operandi of subverting this financial autonomy of Local governments by state governments through their houses of assembly is to insert clauses in their laws requiring the Local Governments upon receipt of their allocation from Federation Account to remit all or majority or substantial portion of their allocation to a dedicated account which the State Governments will keep, control, manage or disburse for them using some nomenclatures like state/LGA joint account, state/LGA Consolidated revenue account, Local Government Joint Security Trust account etc.”
