Supreme Court strikes out suit seeking to compel FG to account for LNG, NGL earnings

The Supreme Court has struck out a suit by the 36 state governments seeking to among others, compel the Federal Government to account for its earnings from the sale of liquefied natural gas, natural gas liquids and related products since 1999.

In a unanimous judgment, a seven-member panel of the court, presided over by Justice Uwani Abba-Aji held that the court lacked the original jurisdiction to hear and determine the suit, which has the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) as the sole defendant.

In the lead judgment, Justice Mohammed Lawal Garba upheld the preliminary objection raised against the suit by the AGF and held that the subject of the case had been dealt with by the Supreme Court in its earlier decision in the case of the Attorney General of Bauchi State against the AGF.

Justice Garba agreed with the defendant that the suit amounted to an attempt to re-litigate issues already decided by the Supreme Court in the AG, Bauchi v. AGF case, which relates to the revenues accruable to the government of the federation, which are payable into the federation account.

He held that the Supreme Court lacked the original jurisdiction to preside over and determine the case.

The judge proceeded to strike out the suit for want of jurisdiction to hear the case as presently constituted.

Other members of the panel – Justices Abba-Aji, Emmanuel Agim, Simon Tsammani, Stephen Adah and Jamilu Tukur agreed with the lead judgment.

The states had prayed the court for the following reliefs:

*An order directing the Federal Government of Nigeria to render an accurate and true account of the total income/profit/dividend, etc, earned by it from Nigeria’s participation in the business of liquefying and selling of liquefied natural gas, natural gas liquids etc, through its shareholding in the Nigeria LNG Limited, held in the name of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation since 9th October 1999, when the first cargo of liquefied natural gas left the shores of Nigeria till date; and to pay same into the federation account for the purpose of appropriation and redistribution to the 36 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory in the manner prescribed in Section 1 of the Allocation of Revenue (Federation Accounts, Etc.) Act CAP A15 LFN 2004.