LG Autonomy: Governors fight back, take FG to Supreme Court over FAAC allocation

Following Thursday’s victory of the Federal Government at the Supreme Court in the suit instituted by the Attorney-General of the Federation, Chief Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, the Governors, under the aegis of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, have taken the Federal Government to the apex court by proxy through a suit filed yesterday by the Adamawa State Government.

The Supreme Court had ruled in favour of Local Government financial autonomy in the case instituted by the Federal Government against the management of local government funds by the states.

The Supreme Court ruled that all monies due to the 774 local governments in Nigeria from the Federation account must now be paid directly to their bank accounts and barred the Governors from willfully dissolving democratically-elected local government chairmen.

The apex court also held that local governments without elected officials should not receive federal allocation.

As a way of getting back to the Federal Government, WESTERN POST learnt the Governors directed Adamawa State to institute a case against the Federal Government, demanding that all the money belonging to the Federation Account must be shared to the three tiers of governments.

Adamawa State Government is seeking the interpretation of Section 162 (1), (2), and (3) of the constitution regarding the distribution of revenue from the Federation Account.

The state is demanding that the “entire sum in the Federation Account should be distributed among all levels of government without deductions, except as permitted by law. The President must comply strictly with the constitution in managing and distributing revenue. All revenue except those permitted by the constitution must be paid into the Federation Account for distribution.”

WESTERN POST further learnt that since President Bola Tinubu assumed office, the Federation Account has accumulated over N8trillion that has not been distributed as a means of controlling inflation. The removal of subsidy and naira devaluation made more money available to the Federation Account but the FAAC committee, which have State Commissioners of Finance, Minister of Finance, Accountant-General of the Federation and Federal Inland Revenue Service Chairman as members do not share all the money.

The Governors, who our Correspondent learnt, are unhappy with President Tinubu for taking them to court over the management of local governments funds now want to take their own pound of flesh.

According to our sources, “the Governors felt betrayed by the President for taking them to Supreme Court when he could have called them to resolve any issue. The Governors felt there is nothing the President wanted from them that they have not obliged him. They are not happy that he allowed his Attorney-General to institute the case against them,” our source said.

The 36 states Governors under the NGF only used Adamawa State Governor as a proxy to institute the case on their behalf. The progressive Governors who are members of the ruling All Progressives Congress are also said to be displeased and are cooperating with their colleagues from the opposition parties to fight the Federal Government.

The NGF Chairman and Governor of Kwara State, Abdulrahman AbdulRazaq, is said to be a moderating influence on his colleagues even though he also felt President Tinubu should have prevailed on the Attorney-General to withdraw the suit from Supreme Court after the NGF representatives met him to express their dismay at the decision of the AG to sue the Governors.