The Supreme Court has prohibited governors from dissolving democratically elected local government (LG) councils in the country.
In an important ruling on Thursday, the Supreme Court ruled that doing so would violate the 1999 Constitution.
The Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) filed a petition seeking an order prohibiting governors from dissolving democratically elected councils at their discretion. The suit by the AGF was on 27 grounds.
The 36 state governors who are defendants in the lawsuit opposed the AGF's decision to file the case.
The Supreme Court, on the other hand, stated that the defendants (governors) had just wasted their time in the suit.
The highest court in the country also gave financial autonomy to the country's 774 local government councils.
In its lead judgment read by Justice Emmanuel Agim, the Supreme Court blasted governors for their decades-long resistance to grant autonomy to local governments.
Justice Agim stated that the 774 local government councils in the country should manage their own funds by themselves.
He dismissed the preliminary objections of the defendants (state governors).
The Supreme Court decided that Local Government allocations from the Federation Account be paid directly to them from now on, rather than to state government coffers.
