S’Court judgment didn’t imply INEC should conduct LG elections, says lawyers

Following the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on local government autonomy, some legal practitioners have clarified that the decision does not necessarily mean that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will now be responsible for conducting local government elections in Nigeria.

As previously stated, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that state governors’ practice of withholding funds intended for local government administrations is unconstitutional and violates the rights of local governments.

The Supreme Court’s seven-judge panel, in a judgment delivered by Justice Emmanuel Agim, held that the 774 local government councils in Nigeria are entitled to financial autonomy and should be responsible for managing their own funds.

The apex court also held that the power of the government is portioned into three arms of government, the federal, the state and the local government.

The court further declared that a state government has no power to appoint a caretaker committee and a local government council is only recognisable with a democratically elected government.

“A democratically elected local government is sacrosanct and non-negotiable,” the court said.

It further held that the use of a caretaker committee amounts to the state government taking control of the local government and is in violation of the 1999 Constitution.

Reacting to the judgment on Friday, some observers said the apex court, through the judgement, has indirectly ordered INEC to henceforth conduct local government elections in the country.

However, while speaking yesterday, some senior lawyers argued that the apex court judgment did not imply that INEC should take over the LG election responsibilities from the State Independent Electoral Commissions.

In his submission, a lawyer, Eze Onyekpere, said, “I did not see any directive of such in the judgment of the Supreme Court. There was no directive that INEC should take over the work of SIEC. Such thing requires an amendment of the constitution. And the Supreme Court has no constitutional power or duty to do so. It can only interprete. So I did not see such directive. The apex court can’t even give such order.

“Moreover, there is no basis to shift the SIEC responsibility to INEC because the Federal commission hasn’t proven itself to be a responsible agency that can organise a credible election for the country.”

Also commenting, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Adekunle Oyesanya, said, “I don’t think the Supreme Court ever said that. This is my point. But I have read it somewhere that the apex court said it. Some people even said that position was what the Supreme Court judgment implied. But saying something is different from an implication, which is simply an opinion or a person’s interpretation of your statement.”