S’Court Bars Governors From Dissolving LG Councils

The Supreme Court has barred governors from dissolving democratically elected Local Government (LG) councils in the country.

The apex court, in a landmark judgement on Thursday, said doing so, would amount to a breach of the 1999 Constitution.

In the suit filed by the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), the Federal Government sought an order preventing the governors from arbitrarily dissolving democratically elected councils. The suit by the AGF was on 27 grounds.

The 36 state governors, defendants in the suit, opposed the AGF for instituting the case.

The Supreme Court, however, said the defendants (governors) just wasted their time in the suit.

The highest court of the land also granted financial autonomy to the 774 local government councils in the country.

In its lead judgement read by Justice Emmanuel Agim, the apex court scolded governors for their decades-long refusal of autonomy for local governments.

Justice Agim noted that the 774 local government councils in the country should manage their funds themselves.

He dismissed the preliminary objections of the defendants (state governors).

The apex court directed that Local Government allocations from the Federation Account should be paid directly to them henceforth, and not to state government coffers.