EGALITARIAN VOICE has gathered that the Supreme Court of Nigeria has in a landslide judgement on local government autonomy ordered that the four-year tenure enjoyed by Executives be extended to the office of all Local Government Chairmen across the country.
This is contained in the Certified-True-Copy (CTC) of a judgment delivered by Justice Mohammed Garba and six others on May 11, 2024.
Garba said that some states have, by their various illegal actions, starved the local government councils in their states to the extent that most of them cannot exercise their constitutional powers or perform their statutory functions. The Justice described situation of LGA in the country as “one tier of government’s inhumanity to another tier of government.
Garba said that LGA in Nigeria, unlike branches of incorporated bodies or entities, are constitutionally the third tier of government of the Federation.
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“If the tenure of a local government council is truncated, as it is the norm now, it is an illegal termination of the electorate’s mandate and it is not to be encouraged but roundly condemned. “By the doctrine of separation of powers, it is the constitutional duty or function of the Legislature to make laws, which includes amendments and repeals; and the duty of the judiciary is to interpret the laws to achieve the intendment of the legislation,” he said.
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