BREAKING: FG Sanctions 8 Governors Over LG Autonomy

The federal government is planning to impose sanctions on states that fail to grant autonomy to local governments.

This move is aimed at ensuring that local governments receive their allocations directly from the federation account rather than through state governments.

The Attorney General of the Federation, Mr Lateef Fagbemi, who disclosed this in Ekiti, said there was no going back on the Federal Government’s plan to implement the Supreme Court ruling on LG autonomy.

Currently, no fewer than 164 LGS in eight states have yet to conduct elections. There have been reports President Bola Tinubu may implement the Supreme Court ruling by the end of October. This means the affected LGs may have their federal allocations seized by the Federal Government, in line with the court ruling.

The LGAs that have yet to hold their polls are in Ondo, Osun, Katsina, Cross Rivers, Nasarawa, Abia, Ogun and Zamfara states.

According to findings, there are 18LGAs in Ondo, 30 in Osun, 34 in Katsina, 18 in Cross Rivers, 13 in Nasarawa, 17 in Abia, 20 in Ogun and 14 LGAs in Zamfara.
The Supreme Court ruling indicates that it is illegal and unconstitutional for governors to continue to receive or retain funds allocated to the local councils under the State and Local Government Joint Account.

Early in October, the state governors were opposing the enforcement of the verdict, even as the report from the 10-member inter-ministerial committee on implementing the Supreme Court ruling regarding Local Government Area autonomy was set for submission this week.

The panel, headed by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, has concluded its assignment and is expected to submit its report on or before October 13.

Last week, Anambra State Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, after signing the Anambra State Local Government Administration Law, warned that granting full autonomy to the country’s 774 LGs could lead to “humongous chaos,” arguing that such a move would not result in sustainable development.

“The absolute autonomy to the 774 Local Government Areas in the country is impossibility. In fact, it is a recipe for humongous chaos. The attendant challenges before the issue of local government autonomy are such that would certainly deepen the fate of the system and spell doom for the expected beneficiaries of the process if not well planned,” Soludo stated.

But Attorney General of the Federation, Fagbemi, while speaking in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital on Tuesday, said implementation of the apex court verdict was sacrosanct.