The Senate on Wednesday asked state Houses of Assembly and governors to comply with the Supreme Court judgement on local government autonomy, particularly on finances for the councils.
The Senate also resolved to take immediate steps to alter sections of the 1999 Constitution to give full autonomy to local government administration in the country.
The resolutions were announced by the Deputy Senate President, Barau Jibrin, after the Senate had reconvened from a closed-door session where it debated attempts by some state governments to thwart the ruling of the Supreme Court on July 11.
Recall that the Supreme Court had granted autonomy to all the 774 local government areas in the country following a suit filed by the federal government through the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation.
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Senator Tony Nwoye (LP, Anambra North), had during plenary through orders 41, and 51 of the Senate Standing rules alleged in a motion that some state Houses of Assembly were enacting laws to halt the implementation of the Supreme Court judgement.
Senator Nwoye informed the Senate that his motion was co-sponsored by 10 other senators.
He specifically alleged that some state governors were already using state Houses of Assembly to enact laws that would mandate local government councils in their states to remit monies into state/local government joint account.
Before the closed-door session, Senator Adamu Aliero (PDP, Kebbi Central), while contributing to Senator Nwoye’s motion raised a constitutional point of order for the Senate to stop the debate.
Aliero said, “The Supreme Court judgement is enforceable across the country. There is no need for us to be debating anything that has to do with it here.”
The President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, also backed Aliero by drawing the attention of the Senators to Section 162 (6) of the 1999 constitution.
Daily Trust reports that Senators started moving towards Akpabio for personal contributions, a development that forced the Senate into an emergency closed-door session, after which the resolutions were reached.
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