Reps back FG suit against govs

The House of Representatives has expressed its support for the legal action taken by the Federal Government against the 36 states of the federation to enforce the autonomy of the local governments.

This was as the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees also, on Tuesday, declared its readiness to “aggressively mobilise our LG branches to troop out en mass to loudly support the Federal Government,” in the push for LG autonomy.

The Federal Government has approached the Supreme Court with a suit seeking to compel governors of the 36 states of the federation to grant full autonomy to the local governments in their domains.

The suit, marked SC/CV/343/2024, was filed by the  Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), on behalf of the Federal Government.

The Federal Government is urging the apex court to issue “an order prohibiting state governors from unilateral, arbitrary and unlawful dissolution of democratically elected local government leaders for local governments.”

Speaking with The PUNCH on the subject matter, the deputy spokesman for the House of Representatives, Philip Agbese, said the legislators were in support of the Federal Government’s push for LG autonomy.

Agbese said, “Yes; we are in total support of reforms that would uplift the well-being of our citizenry.”

According to a statement on Tuesday signed by Ambali Akeem, NULGE, at a meeting in Lagos on Tuesday, resolved to embark on a mega rally.

Akeem said, “We are to design various card posters and also use our big banners that we already had.  The route of the campaign rally commences from local government secretariats,  the major markets to paramount rulers or important dignitaries.

“The national secretariat will be sending our solidarity message for onward reproduction and delivery. Those that have local media houses should take the solidarity message to them in the local language. The national and state officers should join to offer leadership at their local. Those Houses of Assembly that pass autonomy bills should be visited. This solidarity message is non-political and we already discussed it with ALGON national leadership.”

But the Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly, Emomotiti Gumor, on Tuesday,  criticised the Federal Government’s resort to a lawsuit.

Gumor wondered why the Federal Government would go to court when the issue of LG autonomy was already being considered in the ongoing constitutional amendment.

The Speaker, who spoke during the Delta Assembly’s first anniversary in Asaba, said, “It is unconstitutional for the Federal government to deduct from the state what belongs to the local governments.

“Only 16 out of the 36 states supported the autonomy of the local government, which means that it falls short of the expectations of what the constitution says. So, it couldn’t stand the test of time.

“They (Federal Government) needed 24 states to support the autonomy but unfortunately, only 16 voted for it while others voted against it.

“The Federal Government should have waited for the constitutional amendment, but it hurriedly approached the court, which to me is an aberration and unconstitutional.”

On Tuesday,