The Supreme Court of Nigeria will on Thursday decide whether local government councils in the country would begin to operate as a fully independent entity or remain as an appendage of state governors.
Although Nigeria operates a three-tier system of government; federal, state and local governments, over the years the local governments seemed to have been subsumed into the state governments, with the states allegedly taking over the management of funds belonging to the councils.
The development, amongst others, led the federal government through the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) instituting legal action against the states at the apex court.
After hearing all arguments for and against the suit, the apex court had on June 13, announced that its judgement would be delivered on a date that would be communicated to parties.
After nearly one month, the apex court is set to put to rest the issue of local governments autonomy.
Spokesman of the apex court, Dr. Festus Akande, confirmed this to journalists in Abuja on Wednesday during the inauguration of 34 new justices of the Court of Appeal and High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).