Barely 24 hours after his appeal to governors to comply with the judgment of the Supreme Court and remove their grip on local government statutory allocations, President Bola Tinubu has threatened to invoke an Executive Order to ensure compliance with the judgment of the Supreme Court.
Tinubu issued the threat on Friday night while speaking at the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting.
He had earlier appealed to them at the National Caucus meeting held on Thursday night, noting that the autonomy of the local councils is being eroded.
The Supreme Court had, in a judgment in 2024, affirmed the financial autonomy of the country’s 774 local governments.
In the unanimous judgment of its seven-member panel, read by Justice Emmanuel Agim, the apex court held that local governments across the country should receive their allocations directly from the Accountant-General of the Federation.
Tinubu told the gathering of the governors, President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives that he would halt the stance of the governors who have refused to subordinate themselves to the judgment of the apex court.
He said: “Now that you have elections at the local government level, you are the invigilators, you elected them and since you elected them, it means you know them. But give them their money and if you don’t do it, I have the Executive Order because I have the yam and the knife. I am just being very respectful and if you don’t start to implement it, you will see.
“The ultimate is our Supreme Court and you have to respect the judgment.”
(Tribune)