SUPREME COURT DISMISS CASE BY OSUN’S SUIT ON WITHHELD LG FUNDS
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BY ALICE IDOWU
The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a case started by the Osun State Government, which was trying to force the Federal Government to give back money that had been withheld for local government areas in the state.
A panel of seven judges from the top court made a decision that split 6 to 1, saying that the legal action taken by the Attorney General of Osun State wasn’t valid.
According to Vanguard on Friday, in the main judgment given by Justice Mohammed Idris, the court said that the local government councils in Osun state didn’t have the right to use the Supreme Court‘s original power on behalf of all 30 councils.
Justice Idris explained that the Supreme Court can only be used as a first–level court to settle disagreements between a state and the Federal Government.
He also said that the local government councils, which are officially recognized as independent bodies, were the correct ones to challenge the actions of the Federal Government.
He dismissed the state AG’s argument that the suit was a public interest litigation.
Although the Supreme Court upheld a preliminary objection filed by the Attorney General of the Federation challenging the competence of the suit, it admonished the FG to give full effect to its judgment granting fiscal autonomy to all 774 Local Government Areas in the country.
Osun State had sought multiple reliefs, including a declaration that the AGF could not act contrary to the subsisting decisions of the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal by withholding allocations and directing payments to sacked APC local government officials.
Counsel for Osun State, Musibau Adetunbi, SAN, said the Attorney General of the Federation tried to “destroy the subject matter” by trying to give money to one of the parties involved. He pointed out that a previous court order had stopped the release of the funds. On the other hand, the Federal Government argued that “there was no legal basis to take action against it” and that the state was trying to stop APC officials whose term had ended. They also said the plaintiff didn’t have the right to sue and was misusing the court process.
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