The Supreme Court has reserved judgment in the case between the Osun State government and the federal government of Nigeria over the withholding of local government funds due to the state.
Naijaonpoint reports that the state government dragged the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) to court for withholding its local government funds.
In a ruling, Justice Uwani Abba-Aji, who led a seven-member panel of Supreme Court Justices, reserved judgment for a date to be communicated to the parties involved in the case.
The decision was taken after the Supreme Court heard arguments from the parties in the suit.
In the suit, the Attorney General of Osun State is seeking an order of the apex court directing the AGF to immediately release the statutory allocations to chairmen and councillors of the 30 Local Government Areas of the state.
Counsel for the plaintiff, Musibau Adetunbi, sought an order stopping the AGF from further withholding, seizing monthly allocations and revenues, to the credit of the constituents local governments, having democratically elected chairmen in place.
He argued that the AGF was wrong in his letter recognizing All Progressives Congress (APC) LGA chairmen when the matter was pending before the court.
Adetunbi stated further that the election that brought in the APC officials as local government chairmen had been nullified by a Federal High Court and upheld by the Court of Appeal in Abuja.
He therefore prayed the Supreme Court to uphold his argument and grant all the reliefs sought by his client.
However, in opposing the suit, counsel for the AGF, Akin Olujimi, urged the apex court to dismiss the case on grounds that the plaintiff lacked the legal authority to bring the case before the Supreme Court to invoke the original jurisdiction.
He also contended that the apex court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the suit because it was not competent to be presented directly to it, as done by the plaintiff.
He further argued that the suit did not disclose any cause of action, adding that the tenure of the disputed council chairmen will run till October 22nd this year and the proper thing was for the funds to be released to them to run their councils.
Olujimi submitted that the Attorney-General of Osun State engaged in abuse of court processes by filing cases in different courts on the same subject with the same parties.
He therefore urged the court to refuse the reliefs sought by the plaintiff and dismiss the suit.
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