Supreme Court’s Judgment Halts FAAC Allocations To CTC Chairmen- Ozekhome
Senior Advocate of Nigeria Mike Ozekhome has clarified that the Supreme Court’s recent judgment on local government council autonomy has stipulated that the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) will no longer disburse funds to local government areas led by caretaker committee chairmen.
Ozekhome shared this information on Channels Television’s Sunrise programme, The Morning Brief, on Friday, July 12.
He stated, “The judgment of the Supreme Court is clear. If you want to receive funds from the federation account, then conduct an election. If what you have in place is a caretaker committee as a local government chairman, be sure that it will not receive money from the federation account.”
Ozekhome further explained that, according to the ruling, development council areas created by Lagos and other states are also ineligible to receive funds from FAAC.
“What this law is saying is that if you are not a democratically elected local government council, you cannot receive money under section 162 subsections 5 and 6 of the 1999 Constitution. So, money should now be allocated to those local governments that are democratically constituted.”
He mentioned that states and local development councils could internally manage and distribute funds after the constitutionally recognized local governments have received their allocations from FAAC.
“They can handle that internally to share. That is their internal business, and nobody can control that. 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.”
This follows the recent Supreme Court verdict endorsing full local government autonomy, mandating that funds from the Federation Account be paid directly to local government accounts. The ruling prohibits governors from receiving and tampering with local government allocations and bars governors from dissolving democratically elected local government officials, as such actions would breach the 1999 Constitution.
