Justice Emmanuel Agim delivered the lead judgement, declaring the long-standing practice of state governors receiving and holding onto local government funds as illegal and unconstitutional. The court further criticised the decades-long refusal of state governments to grant financial autonomy to local entities.
“It is the position of this court that the federation can pay local governments allocations directly to the local governments or through the states. In this case, since paying them through the states has not worked, justice demands that local governments allocations from the federation account should henceforth be paid directly to the local governments,” Emmanuel stated. “I hold that the states’ retention of local government funds is unconstitutional.”
