The Supreme Court of Nigeria has bowed all the 36 Governors in Nigeria to 774 Local government Areas in the country by granting them financial autonomy.
Minister of Justice to the federation, Chief Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) filed the suit prayering for the direct allocation of fund from the federal government to the local government without passing through the state governments and also, the full autonomy of all the local governments.
In his suit, he seeks that the Supreme Court of Nigeria should exact the the spirit and letters of the constitution of Nigeria 1999 as amended in sections 1, 4, 5, 7 and 14 where it says elections of the third tie must be obligatorily done democratically by the State Assembly and State Governors.
Justice Emmanuel Agim of the highest court in Nigeria in a lead judgement declared that it is against the sacrosanct constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for Governors to hold the funds for the LG.
The Supreme Court therefore directed that the local government allocation should be paid directly from the federation account without passing through the state government.
