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Supreme Court dismisses governors’ suit challenging Nigerian govt’s application of recovered funds
The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed the suit filed by the 36 states’ governments challenging the Federal Government’s application of recovered looted funds.
The governors had in the suit alleged that the federal government had illegally diverted the funds recovered between 2015 and 2021 into the Consolidated Revenue Accounts (CRA) and other accounts not recognised by the 1999 Constitution instead of the Federation Account.
The plaintiffs claimed that the federal government secured both international and municipal forfeiture, recovery and repatriation of “stolen assets” in the sum of NI,836,906,543,658.73, about 167 properties, 450 cars, 300 trucks and cargoes, and 20,000,000 barrels of crude oil worth over N450 million during the period.
READ ALSO: Nigerian govt sets up committee to enforce Supreme Court ruling on local council autonomy
They argued that the CRA is the account into which federal government’s share from the Federation Account, other federal earnings, and funds belonging to specific state governments are paid.
In its ruling, a seven-member panel of the apex court led by Justice Chidiebere Uwa held that the suit was wrongly instituted by the plaintiffs.
Justice Mohammed Idris, who read the judgement, said the Nigeria Governors Forum wrongly invoked its jurisdiction.
He held that the subject matter of the suit was within the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court.
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