The Socio-Economic Rights And Accountability Project, SERAP, has called on Nigeria’s governors and the FCT minister to return local government council funds they have collected, or face legal action.
This call is coming after the Supreme Court declared unlawful, the use of the funds meant for local governments by Nigeria’s 36 governors.
The Supreme Court had barred the 36 governors of the federation from further retaining or utilizing funds that are meant for the 774 Local Government Areas, LGAs, in the country.
In a statement by its Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, SERAP applauded the Supreme Court for the decision which it said would end the persistent misappropriation of several trillions of FAAC allocations meant for local governments.
According to SERAP, following the Supreme Court judgment, there is now a clear legal precedent to hold governors and the FCT minister to account for how they have spent the local government funds collected by them.
“Implicit in the Supreme Court judgment is the requirement for the governors and FCT minister to immediately account for and return the funds meant for local governments but retained and used or allegedly misused by them.
“Accounting for and returning the LGA funds collected would build trust in democratic institutions and strengthen the rule of law.
“The National Assembly must urgently amend the provisions Section 162 of the Nigerian Constitution 1999 [as amended] to ensure that local government allocations from the Federation Account are directly paid to local government areas and not collected by governors and FCT,” SERAP said.
