Earlier today, news filtered in of the Order of the FCT High Court sitting at Apo, FCT Restraining the Accountant General of the Federation and the Federal Minister of Finance from “further remitting monies due to the 21 Local Government Areas of Anambra State from the Federation Account or/and the consolidated revenue funds to Anambra State Government”
But to remit HENCEFORTH all such monies into an interest yielding account to be opened by the Chief Registrar of the High Court of the FCT PENDING the hearing of the substantive Motion on Notice.
The Honourable Court further “directed the EFCC to invite and interrogate the relevant officers of Anambra State Government over the deployment of the monies belonging to the twenty-one (21) Local Government Areas of Anambra State received from the Federation Account or/and the consolidated revenue funds between the 22nd day of March, 2022 to the 30th day of April, 2024 and file an Affidavit of Compliance (embodying the Investigation Report) with the registry of the High Court of the FCT within 30 days” from the date of service of the Order on the EFCC!!
In as much as this news is not so cheery since it is funds due to the 21 LGAs of my beloved State; Anambra that is in issue; I cannot say it is not a welcome development.
The use of Caretaker Committees to run the affairs of the Local Governments of the State has been resoundingly held to be illegal. It is unfortunate that the Governor of Anambra State, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo has continued to toe the path of this illegality since he was sworn in on the 17th day of March, 2022, despite his promise to the contrary.
The Applicant also pointed out;
“That the total sum of N7, 323, 679, 402. 23 was allocated by the office of the 1st Respondent (Accountant General of the Federation) to the 4th Respondent (Anambra State Government) in month of March, 2024 for the benefit of the 21 LGAs”
This means that about N175bn may have accrued to the 21 LGA in the past 2 years alone at an average of N8.3bn per LGA. Imagine what this humongous sum could have done in schools, healthcare institutions, markets and the poor women and men in LGAs like Ayamelum, Ogbaru, Idemili South, Ekwusigo, etc that have felt little or no presence of government. This excludes the internally generated revenue from the State.
The fact that Anambra has been ravaged by insecurity since the inception of this present Government makes the continued remittance of these humongous amount to this Government without elected Local Government Councils in place more counterproductive!!
It is with the hindsight situation represented in the foregoing paragraphs that I wish to applaud the APPLICANT in the Application that generated the Order of the FCT High Court; CHUKWUEBUKA MMENI, Esq. for this step he has taken to call the Anambra State Government to Order.
May I equally use this opportunity to advise the Government of Anambra State not to resort to the tempting option of doling out scarce resources in legal fees to get the Order to be vacated or quashed. This is because the Order is clearly made with the interest of the generality of Ndi Anambra at heart!! Moreover, the Illegality of the Caretaker Committees that the Government has been using to run the Local Government Areas cannot be overemphasized!! It is therefore clear that no assemblage of legal minds no matter how robust and brilliant will defend the indefensible!!
It will profit our state more if the State Government channels any money that might have been earmarked for such exercise in futility into conducting true and valid Local Government Elections!!
On the contrary, should the Governor insist on going ahead to join issues with the Applicant without conducting a Local Government Election, I will advise that my Party; Labour Party, being a peoples’ party, should seek to be joined in the suit to ensure that the right thing is done.
Long Live Anambra State!!!
Long Live Nigeria!!!!
