Nigeria’s apex court, the Supreme Court, on Friday, declared that the Executive Order 10 on the funding of state judiciary and legislature, as unlawful and unconstitutional.
Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari, on May 22, 2020 signed the order, granting financial autonomy to the 36 states legislature and the judiciary.
The order empowers the Accountant-General of the Federation, AGF, to deduct funds for the state legislature and the judiciary from the federation allocations of the states.
Subsequently, all the 36 states, through their Attorneys-General filed a suit on September 17, 2020, contending the constitutionality of the executive order.
The plaintiffs argued that with the executive order, the Federal Government’s responsibility of funding capital and recurrent expenditures of state high courts, sharia court of appeal and customary court of appeal has been pushed to the state governments.
But, in a split decision on Friday, majority of the court’s seven-member panel agreed that the President exceeded his constitutional powers in issuing the EO10.
Six out of the seven members of the panel proceeded to void and set aside the EO10.
The court also dismissed the N66 billion suit filed by state governors against the Federal Government.
