LG autonomy: Chairmen won’t get money from FAAC –Ozekhome

A constitutional lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Chief Mike Ozekhome, has said that the Thursday Supreme Court judgment on Local Government Council Autonomy had made it clear that the Federation Account Allocation Committee would no longer send funds to local government areas headed by Caretaker Committee chairmen.

Ozekhome stated this on Channels Television’s Sunrise programme, The Morning Brief on Friday.

“The judgement of the government is clear. If you want to receive funds from the federation account, then conduct an election,” Ozekhome said.

“If what you have in place is a caretaker committee as local government chairman, be sure that it will not have money from the federation account.”

According to him, some of the states that would be affected include Rivers, Abia, Anambra, Katsina, Zamfara, Akwa Ibom, Cross Rivers.

Ozekhome also stated that with the ruling, development council areas created by Lagos and some other states are not qualified to receive funds from the FAAC.

“What this law is saying is that if you are not a democratically elected local government council, you cannot have this money under section 162 subsection 5 and 6 of the 199 Constitution,” the SAN noted.

“So, what it means is that money should now be ploughed to those local governments that are in existence democratically.”

He added that states and local development councils could find a way to share the money internally after the constitutionally recognised local governments had received it from FAAC.

“They can do that internally to share. That is their internal business, nobody can control that one. But for now the money can only go to those local government areas named in the constitution. Don’t forget they are even named in the constitution, 774 local governments,” he said.

“If you want money from the federation account, such councils must be democratically elected.”

“What this law is saying is that if you are not a democratically elected local government council, you cannot have this money under Section 162 Subsection 5 and 6 of the 1999 Constitution.

“So what it means is that money should now be ploughed to those local governments that are in existence democratically.”

Recall that the Supreme Court in the judgement on Thursday, had ruled that the Federal Government should henceforth pay allocations directly to local government councils from the federation’s account.

The seven-member panel of justices declared that it is unconstitutional for state governors to hold onto funds meant for Local Government (LG) administrations.

The Supreme Court also barred governors from dissolving democratically elected Local Government councils in the country.

It ordered that the Federal Government should withhold allocations of LGAs governed by unelected officials appointed by the governor.