Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court on Monday, ruled in favour of the Federal Government against the state governors in the issue of financial autonomy for Local Government.
With the judgement, the Federal Government has won the case against the state governors on the issue of financial autonomy of the Local Government as it affects the joint accounts.
The Nigerian Governors Forum sued the FG and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) on the contentious issue.
The two entities in June 2019 issued guidelines at curbing crime vulnerabilities created by cash withdrawals from local government accounts by various state governments.
NFIU said the guideline is based on money laundering risk and vulnerabilities, instructing all banks not to honour transactions from joint accounts.
The NFIU, in a statement directed that the States and Local Governments Joint Accounts should be used only for receiving funds and subsequently transferring them to Local government accounts only.
The Chief Media Analyst, to the NFIU boss, Ahmed Dikko explained that “from this judgement and from today all transactions on Local Government funds will be disclosed to ICPC and EFCC 100 percent and will be reported continuously”.
