SAN Sends Key Message to National Assembly Over LG Autonomy: "Swallowed Them Up"

• A top lawyer, Alex Izinyon, has hailed the Supreme Court’s judgment which gave full financial autonomy to the local governments
• Izinyon expressed support for the apex court's decision and noted that the judgement would promote accountability
• Izinyon urged the national assembly (NASS) to enact laws supporting the Supreme Court’s monumental judgment granting autonomy to local government councils

Legit.ng journalist, Ridwan Adeola Yusuf, has over 9 years of experience covering public journalism.

Ikeja, Lagos state - A senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Alex Izinyon, has called on the national assembly to make enabling laws to give adequate effect to the judgement of the Supreme Court on local government autonomy in the country.

In a statement on Wednesday, August 28, obtained by Legit.ng, Izinyon said the Supreme Court is working to ensure the right thing is done in local government administration in the country, but the national assembly has failed to live up to expectations.

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Izinyon said:

"It is no longer news that apart from the few state governors who had kept to this autonomous nature of the local government, others have swallowed them up as part of their departments and in most cases dissolved the democratically-elected local government area councils and appointed caretaker committees.

”Are we not as Nigerians eyewitnesses to these happenings in the last 25 years of democracy? No soothsayer or Prof. Moshood Abiola Peller of blessed memory is needed, to tell us so.”

Furthermore, Izinyon asserted that the national assembly has failed to play its role effectively. He, therefore, called on federal lawmakers to live up to their duties.

He said:

"In all these years, where is the national assembly after the Supreme Court decision in A-G Lagos state vs. A-G Federation (SUPRA) to correct by legislation or amendment that the joint account referred to are for the state and the local government areas, created by Schedule 1 of the 1999 constitution.

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“Despite the pronouncements of the Supreme Court on the unconstitutionality of the governors sacking duly elected local government chairmen and their counsellors in the cases just cited over these years, has the national assembly risen to the challenge urgently to remedy this situation? They did not and may never."

LG autonomy: S'Court ruling to promote accountability

Earlier, Legit.ng reported that popular human rights activist, Femi Falana (SAN), reacted to the Supreme Court’s judgement, instructing state governments to refrain from controlling the federal allocations of local governments.

Falana declared support for the apex court judgement, stating that it would promote accountability at the grassroots level.

Source: Legit.ng