A Kano State High Court has issued an order of perpetual injunction restraining the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from withholding funds from the Federation Account to the 44 Local Governments in the state. The ruling, delivered on Monday, followed a motion filed by the applicants, including the Chairman of NULGE, Ibrahim Muhd, alongside Ibrahim Uba Shehu, Ibrahim Shehu Abubakar, Usman Isa, Sarki Alhaji Kurawa, and Malam Usman Imam.
The applicants, through their counsel, Mr. Bashir Yusuf-Muhammad, had filed a motion ex parte on November 1, seeking the court’s intervention to prevent the respondents from withholding or delaying allocations essential for local governance in Kano State. The respondents in the case included the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF), CBN, the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), the 44 Local Governments of Kano, and several commercial banks, including UBA and Access Bank.
Delivering the judgment, Justice Ibrahim Musa-Muhammad ruled in favor of the applicants, affirming their claims and granting all reliefs sought. Citing the Supreme Court decision in suit No. SC/CV/343/2024, Attorney General of Abia State and 35 others, the judge held that the AGF, CBN, and RMAFC have a legal duty to disburse monthly allocations to the 44 LGAs as democratically elected Local Government Councils. He further declared that withholding these allocations would constitute a breach of the fundamental rights of residents in the 44 local government areas, as guaranteed under Sections 33, 42, 43, 44, 45, and 46 of the 1999 Constitution, as well as Articles 13, 19, 22, and 24 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The ruling emphasized that the exclusion of Kano’s local governments from the Federation Account distribution contravenes Section 162(3) of the Constitution.
Earlier, the applicants’ counsel, Yusuf-Muhammad, urged the court to dismiss the respondents’ counter-affidavit and grant the requested reliefs. Counsel to the 44 Local Governments, Ibrahim Isa-Wangida, holding brief for Eyitayo Fatogun (SAN), did not oppose the plaintiffs’ application, stating that local government allocations should not be interrupted.
However, CBN’s counsel, Mr. Ganiyu Ajape, filed a notice of preliminary objection on November 14, 2024, arguing that the court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the matter and urging it to strike out CBN’s name from the suit. Additionally, counsel representing United Bank of Africa and Keystone Bank, Mr. A. B. Emmanuel, and a counsel for Guarantee Trust Bank, holding brief for Mr. Faruk Asekome, argued that their clients had no role in the disbursement of local government allocations. Emmanuel urged the court to strike out their names from the suit with a substantial cost, stating that no reasonable cause of action was disclosed against the banks.