Supreme Court Gives States Seven Days to File Defense to FG’s Suit Seeking Autonomy for Local Governments.
The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the 36 state governors of the federation to file their respective defenses to a suit instituted against them by the federal government, seeking full autonomy for the 774 local governments in the country.
The apex court also ordered the Attorney General of the federation that upon receipt of the governors’ defenses, he must file his reply within two days.
GALAXY TV reports that Justice Garba Lawal issued the order on Thursday while ruling on an application for abridgment of time argued by Fagebemi.
Justice Lawal, who led a 7-man panel of the apex court, said that the decision of the court was predicated on the national urgency of the suit and the non-objection from the attorneys general of the states of the federation.
The Supreme Court held that filing of all processes and exchanging of the same must be completed within the time specified and subsequently fixed June 13 for the hearing of the suit.
Justice Lawal ordered that the eight states that were not in attendance at Thursday’s proceedings must be served with fresh hearing notices.
The eight states are Borno, Kano, Kogi, Niger, Ogun, Osun, Oyo, and Sokoto, whose attorneys general were absent in court despite being served with hearing notices.
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