SERAP Calls On CBN Governor To Disclose Direct Disbursements To LG

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has called on the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Olayemi Cardoso, to immediately disclose whether the bank has begun directly disbursing allocations to the 774 local government councils in Nigeria from the Federation Account.

Naijaonpoint reports that the organisation also demands transparency in the publication of the amounts sent to each council.

In a letter addressed to Cardoso, SERAP urged the CBN governor to make public any direct payments made to local government councils, particularly in Rivers State. The organisation further requested that the rationale behind such payments be explained.

“The CBN ought to act in the public interest to ensure that the 774 councils in the country directly get their own allocations from the Federation Account, as ordered by the Supreme Court,” stated the request, signed by SERAP’s Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare.

The call comes after a landmark judgment by the Supreme Court last July, which ruled that no governor or agency has the authority to control, withhold, or disburse local government allocations from the Federation Account.

The Court’s ruling stipulated that these allocations must be paid directly to democratically elected councils, ensuring the proper distribution of funds.

SERAP emphasised that the CBN has both a constitutional and statutory duty to protect the allocations in the Federation Account and ensure the direct disbursement of these funds to the constitutionally recognised three tiers of government.

The organisation also reminded the CBN that it must act in accordance with the Nigerian Constitution and ensure that no part of the federation is governed contrary to its provisions or by those not constitutionally empowered to do so.