LG autonomy suit: Supreme Court gives governors 7 days to file defence against FG
Governors of the 36 states of the federation have been given a seven-day ultimatum to file their respective defences to local government autonomy suit instituted by the federal government.
The Informant247 gathered that the supreme court, in the suit, marked SC/CV/343/2024, seeking full autonomy for the country’s 774 local governments, asked the governors to defend their suit against the federal government.
The federal government, seeking full autonomy for the country’s 774 local governments, also asks for an order preventing the governors from arbitrarily dissolving democratically elected councils.
A seven-member panel of the apex court on Thursday also ordered the governors, who were represented by the state attorneys-general, to file their responses to the originating summons within seven days while also ordering Lateef Fagbemi, attorney-general of the federation (AGF), to file his response within two days after receiving the responses of the states.
Garba Lawal, who led the Supreme Court panel, agreed with the AGF that abridgement of time was necessary in the case due to its national imperative.
The Supreme Court held that filing of all processes and exchanging of same must be completed before June 10 while fixing June 13 for the hearing of the suit.
Lawal ordered that the eight states that were not in attendance during Thursday’s proceedings must be served with fresh hearing notices.
The eight states are Borno, Kano, Kogi, Niger, Ogun, Osun, Oyo and Sokoto, whose attorneys-general were absent in court despite being served with hearing notices.
