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 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.
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.”
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.
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