Following the ruling issued by the Supreme Court on the Local Government autonomy and the clause included the said ruling, 13 States have issued what is described as an emergency calendar for their respective local government elections.
The ruling read that the states have no right whatsoever to withhold local government funds and as such, funds belonging to the local governments should be directed to the recipients.
The clause however inserted in the ruling stated that no Unelected officials will be allowed to receive local government funds, putting an end to transition committees.
This has triggered some level of sanity as states plan to hold elections as soon as possible.
The 13 states that have commenced council poll preparations include Kaduna, Kogi, Bauchi, Katsina, Osun, Enugu, Benue, Rivers, Jigawa, Imo, Kebbi, Abia, and Anambra states.
On Tuesday, the Kaduna State Independent Electoral Commission scheduled the council poll for October 19, 2024.
The Supreme Court had declared it unconstitutional for state governors to hold funds allocated for the local government councils.
In the judgment delivered by Justice Emmanuel Agim, the seven-man panel held that the 774 local government councils in the country should manage their funds themselves.
The court delivered the landmark judgment in suit: SC/CV/343/2024, filed by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) against the 36 state governors.The AGF had sued the state governors through their respective state attorneys-general.The apex court declared that the government is divided into three tiers: federal, state, and local governments.
