Court funding: 36 state governments battle federal government in Supreme Court

Court funding: 36 state governments battle federal government in Supreme Court

- The 36 states of the federation have approached the Supreme Court over an executive order signed in May by President Buhari

- The state governments faulted the federal government for transferring the funding of courts to them

- According to the states, the executive order violated the constitution

PAY ATTENTION: Click “See First” under the “Following” tab to see Legit.ng News on your Facebook News Feed!

The 36 states governments have filed a suit at the Supreme Court challenging the presidential executive order signed in May 2020 by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The order transferred the federal government’s responsibility of funding both the capital and recurrent expenditure of state High Courts, Sharia Courts of Appeal, and the Customary Courts of Appeal, to the state governments.

Court funding: 36 state governments battle federal government in Supreme Court
The state governors said Buhari’s order is illegal. Photo credits: Femi Adesina
Source: Facebook

However, the states have argued that the executive order violated the provisions of the constitution, Channels TV reported.

Read also

Electricity tariff: We inherited N701b debt from Jonathan's govt - FG

They pointed out that it is the responsibility of the federal government to fund the listed courts as stipulated in sections 6 and 8(3) of the 1999 constitution.

According to This Day, the states asked the Supreme Court to quash Buhari’s executive order for being unconstitutional.

They also demanded that the federal government refunds to them the amount they spent on funding the capital projects in the listed courts since 2009.

The attorney general of the federation, Abubakar Malami was listed as the sole respondent in the suit.

In other news, the federal government has announced its decision to take over the control of revenue management of its 10 most lucrative enterprises, including the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

Nigerian Tribune reported that the new initiative which was announced on Tuesday, September 22, was a result of the government's dwindling revenues and heavy debt burden and the need to boost the resources.

Read also

EFCC recovers over N4.16bn unpaid lottery revenue

Legit.ng gathered that the decision was announced by the minister of finance, budget and national planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed.

The government said the new measure will promote transparency and accountability of government revenue

PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigeria’s #1 news app

Malami is Nigeria's worst Attorney-General - Inibehe Effiong | Legit TV

Source: Legit.ng

Authors:
Kess Ewubare avatar

Kess Ewubare Kess Ewubare is a former senior political/current affairs editor at Legit.ng. He has a diploma in-law in addition to a BSc and a master’s degree in mass communication. Kess is a journalist with over 10 years of working experience in several fields of journalism ranging from radio presenting, television news reporting, newspaper reporter, feature and magazine writing as well as online and multi-media journalism.