In clear contravention with the judgement of the Supreme Court, Governor Charles Soludo of Anambra State in cahoot with the State Assembly has resolved to enact joint State and Local Government joint Account law.
TheHintsNews reports that On Thursday, July 11, 2024, the Supreme Court in Sc/343/2024 delivered a judgment in which Justice Emmanuel Agim ruled that all funds due to the 774 Local Government Areas in Nigeria must be paid directly into the accounts of local governments and no longer through State and Local Government Joint Account.
However, the Labour Party Caucus in the National Assembly has vowed to challenge plans by the state government to circumvent the Supreme Court ruling on local government financial autonomy.
The caucus while addressing a press briefing on behalf of the caucus Thursday in Abuja, ‘Anambra State Local Government Administration Law, 2024′ currently at the Committee stage, was subservient to the landmark Supreme Court rulings as well as extant provisions of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
A member of the caucus, Senator Tony Nwoye urged the Speaker and members of Anambra State House of Assembly to toe the path of honour by stopping forthwith further consideration of the obnoxious Executive bill for posterity sake.
According to him, We all have gathered to raise an alarm over the growing threat by Anambra State Government led by Professor Chukwuma Soludo to financially strangulate the 21 Local Government Areas in Anambra State and deprive them their financial autonomy recently confirmed by the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
The Caucus expressed worry that the state government wants to take the state back to the era of impunity especially where the House of Assembly seem to be complicit in this show of ignominy.
Nwoye noted: “Section 13(1) of the proposed Anambra State Local Government Administration law 2024, under the subheading: ‘State, Joint Local Government Account’, stated that the “State shall maintain a special account called State Joint Local Government Account and shall pay into it all allocations from Federation to the Local Governments of the State.
“Clause 13(1) stipulates that: The State shall maintain a special account called State Joint Local Government Account and shall pay into it all allocations from the Federation to the Local Governments, of the State.”
Nwoye stressed that Clause 13(2) stipulates that the State shall distribute the funds due to the local governments as provided in Sub-section(1) of Section 11, on such terms and in such manner as prescribed by the State House of Assembly.’
The caucus also protested against the provisions of Clause 14 on Local Government Consolidated Account, which stipulates that: “There shall be established a Local Government Consolidated Account which shall be managed on behalf of the Local Government Areas in the State.
The caucus stressed that Clause 14(2) also stipulates that Consolidated Account shall be administered for the uniform provision of common services across all the Local Government Areas in the State.
It noted that Clause 14(3) stipulates that each Local Government shall, within two working days from the receipt of their allocation from the Federation Account in a case where the allocations are received directly from the Federation be Account for any month, remit to the Consolidated Account, four percentage as determined by the Anambra State Economic Planning Board