The Supreme Court will today rule on the appeal by 36 states governors challenging Executive Order 10 which grants financial autonomy to state judiciary and legislature.
A seven-member panel of justices presided by Justice Datijjo Muhammad had on October 4 reserved judgment in the matter after parties and legal experts, invited as friends of the court, made their submissions.
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The appeal by the governors through an originating summons followed President Muhammadu Buhari’s signing of Executive Order 10 on financial autonomy of the judiciary and legislature in 2020.
Counsel to the states, Austin Alegeh (SAN) argued that under Sections 121(3) and 6 of the Nigerian Constitution, 1999, the states are only to maintain the recurrent expenditure of the lower courts of the states; while the federal government would take care of the capital projects of high courts upwards as superior courts of record.
He said while Section 4 of the constitution provided for federal government’s funding of the judiciary, it did not provide for funding of state assemblies.
