The federal government has dragged the 36 state governor to the Supreme Court, seeking a declaration that their control over the local government areas in their various domains is illegal.

It sued the state governors through their attorneys general, citing alleged misconduct in administrating the LGAs.

The suit marked SC/CV/343/2024, filed by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, is praying the court to grant it full autonomy for all LGAs.

The federal government argued “That the governors represent the component states of the Federation with executive governors who have also sworn to uphold the constitution and to, at all times, give effect to the constitution and that the constitution, being the supreme law, has binding force all over the Federation of Nigeria.

“That the constitution of Nigeria recognises federal, state and local governments as three tiers of government and that the three recognised tiers of government draw funds for their operation and functioning from the federation account created by the constitution.

“By the provisions of the constitution, there must be a democratically elected local government system, and the constitution has not made provisions for any systems of governance at the local government level other than the democratically elected local government system.”

It accused the governors of failing to put a democratically elected LG system in place “even where no state of emergency has been declared to warrant the suspension of democratic institutions in the state.” It described this as “a deliberate subversion of the 1999 Constitution, which they and the president have sworn to uphold.”

“All efforts to make the governors comply with the dictates of the 1999 Constitution in terms of putting in place a democratically elected local government system has not yielded any result, and that to continue to disburse funds from the federation account to governors for non existing democratically elected local government is to undermine the sanctity of the 1999 Constitution.

“That in the face of the violations of the 1999 Constitution, the federal government is not obligated under section 162 of the constitution to pay any state funds standing to the credit of local governments where no democratically elected local government is in place,” it stated.

The federal government prayed the apex court to invoke sections 1, 4, 5, 7, and 14 of the constitution to declare that the state governors and state houses of assembly must ensure a democratic system at LG level and to hold that the governors cannot lawfully dissolve democratically elected local government councils.

Additionally, the suit sought to invoke sections 1, 4, 5, 7, and 14 of the constitution to declare that the dissolution of democratically elected LGs by governors or anyone using state powers from laws enacted by the state assemblies or any executive order is unlawful, unconstitutional, and null and void.

The Supreme Court will hear the suit on May 30.