The Senate on Wednesday asked state and local governments to immediately comply with the Supreme Court judgment, particularly relating to local government accounts and the funds allocated directly to them.

President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, says the Senate is fully in support of the Supreme Court judgment on granting financial autonomy to the 774 Local Governments in Nigeria.

A resolution announced by the Deputy Senate president, Senator Jibrin Barau, got the red chamber to take immediate steps to alter sections of the Constitution to give full autonomy to local government administration in the country, as the lawmakers reconvened from a closed door session, where they debated attempts by some state governments to circumvent the ruling of the Supreme Court on July 11.

Sen. Nwoye alleged that some State Governors are already using their House of Assembly to enact laws that would mandate respective local government councils in their states, to remit monies into State / Local Government Joint Accounts ruled against by the Supreme Court.

In the ensuing arguments and simultaneous points of orders, several senators approached the Senate President, Godswil Akpabio for further consultation, shortly after which the Upper chamber dissolved into a closed-door session.

Following the concerns raised, the motion was co-sponsored by 12 other senators on an alleged move by some state governments to circumvent implementation of the judgement through counter laws from their respective state House of Assembly.

Several senators had approached the Senate President for further consultation, shortly after which the Upper chamber dissolved into a closed-door session.

In a matter of urgent national importance, Sen Tony Nwoye today raised the urgent need to halt the implementation of actions of state governments using their state Houses of Assembly, to enact laws that breach constitutional provisions, and the Supreme Court judgment on granting financial autonomy to local governments in line with the provisions of the constitution.

The motion says, “Further concerned that the modus Operandi of subverting this financial autonomy of Local governments by state governments through their houses of assembly is to insert clauses in their laws requiring the Local Governments upon receipt of their allocation from Federation Account to remit all or majority or substantial portion of their allocation to a dedicated account which the State Governments will keep, control, manage or disburse for them using some nomenclatures like state/LGA joint account, state/LGA Consolidated revenue account, Local Government Joint Security Trust account etc.”

The Supreme Court also barred governors from dissolving democratically elected Local Government councils in the country. The apex court, in a landmark judgement, said doing so, would amount to a breach of the 1999 Constitution.

Senator Akpabio said: “We have looked at the motion and saw that some of the prayers would conflict with the existing provisions within the constitution, and we have jointly agreed on two prayers.

“Because we believe strongly that if there is any legacy that this administration and indeed the 10th Senate and National Assembly will live behind, it is the legacy of sanitising the local government. Also by ensuring that the local government funds are fully utilised for the benefits of rural people,”.

Senate, thereafter, approved the two prayers out of the six prayers advanced by Sen.Tony Nwoye in his motion.

Senate consequently urged all state and local governments to fully comply to the recent Supreme Court judgement on the disbursement and utilisation of funds accrued to all local governments in Nigeria.

Senate also pledged to ensure alterations to relevant provisions of the constitution to provide full autonomy to local governments in Nigeria.

Akpabio thanked the lawmakers for all their contributions especially Sen. Tony Nwoye, who brought out the motion on an attempt to circumvent the ruling of the Supreme Court.

“I want to assure you that the national assembly will alter any aspect of our constitution and amend any section of our law to ensure full autonomy for local government administration in Nigeria