Agbakoba seeks stoppage of LG allocations to 14 states

    
Former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mr. Olisa Agbakoba, has urged a Federal High Court in Lagos to stop further disbursement of local government allocations to 14 states of the federation.

The states are those without democratically elected local government administrations.

They are Abia, Bauchi, Borno, Delta, Ekiti, Imo, Kano, Katsina, Nasarawa, Ondo, Osun, Oyo, Plateau, and Yobe states.

Agbakoba filed the motion for interlocutory injunction before Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke on March 27, 2014.

In his substantive suit with number, fhc/l/cs/770/2013, he is seeking the court to declare that such local governments without elected councils are not entitled to receive public revenue from the federation account.

The Minister of Finance, the Accountant General of the Federation and the Federation Accounts Allocations Committee are the defendants in the suit. The suit had been filed on June 3, 2013.

The former NBA President argued in his motion for interlocutory motion that non-existence of elected councils in the affected states was a violation of Section 7(1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999.

He argued in his written address accompanying his application, “With the clear provisions of Section 7(1) of the 1999 Constitution, it is not contemplated by the Constitution that local governments in Nigeria will be administered by bodies (under any appellation) other than democratically elected local government councils.”

He wants the court to determine, “Whether this honourable court may grant injunction to restrain the defendants from continuing to allocate public funds to non-democratically elected local governments at the 346 local government areas listed in the schedule to the originating summons.”

Justice Aneke has slated the matter till May 12, 2014 for hearing. The plaintiff is expected to serve his amended originating summons on the defendants before then.