The Speaker, Delta State House of Assembly (DTHA) cum Treasurer, conference of Speakers of Nigeria, Rt. Hon. Dennis Emomotimi Guwor, has come hard on the the Bola Ahmed Tinubu All Progressives Congress (APC) led administration, for filing a suit at the Supreme Court against the the 36 state governors, seeking the enforcement of full autonomy of the local governments in Nigeria.
Fielding questions from journalists during activities to mark the 8th Assembly anniversary on Tuesday June 4, 2024, the Speaker said the move by the federal government was an aberration.
Hear him: “Aberration in the sense that it is unconstitutional for a federal government to deduct from the State what belongs to the local governments.
“In the last dispensation, the 7th Assembly to be precise of Delta State House of Assembly, we at the level of Delta State, concur to local government autonomy that was passed at the federal level.
“Of course, we need two third States of the 36 states to ask to concur to that bil but unfortunately, some states did not.
“Only 16 sttaes actually concurred to it and that simply means that it fails short of the 24 states that is actually needed out of the 36 States, so it did not see the light of day.
“There is an ongoing constitutional amendment, I want to plead that the federal government wait for the ongoing constitutional amendment, lobby. Because law making has to do with lobbying to see that we have 24 states.
“For Delta, we are very much ready for local government autonomy because we believe that every part is supposed to do what they are expected to do.
“At the level of Delta State at some point, Delta State government was augmenting the local governments with funds to making sure that they were able to pay.
“That is not supposed to be her responsibility because when they have their money, they are supposed to cater for their staff.
“So, I want to say that Delta State is also part of the 36 states that were sued too, I believe that the Supreme Court knows the right thing to do”, he added.
It would be recall that the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice has instituted a suit at the Supreme Court, seeking an order to better guarantee the independence of the local governments.
