Governor Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta State has said that the verdict of the Supreme Court affirming financial autonomy to LGAs in the country does not affect his state.
News About Nigeria reports that the governor spoke on Saturday, shortly after casting his vote at Ward 6, Unit 33, during the ongoing local government elections in Osubi, Okpe Local Government Area.
Oborevwori said that this is because the state government does not tamper with funds belonging to the local government councils.
According to him, “The Supreme Court has given a judgement. It does not affect the Delta State government.
“In Delta State, we don’t tamper with local government money. As we speak, the money for the local governments is still there. Almost N15 billion is still there.
“I am a supporter of financial autonomy. As a former speaker, I was at the forefront of advocating for financial autonomy for the legislature and the judiciary. I still believe in it.”
Oborevwori assured Deltans that the ongoing election would be peaceful and expressed his belief that the candidates of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) would win the election.
On July 11, the Supreme Court ordered the federal government to directly disburse allocations to local government councils from the federation account.
The judgement was delivered by a seven-member panel of justices on Thursday.
They had unanimously agreed that state governments have been misusing their powers by withholding and utilising funds intended for local government areas (LGAs).
The federal government had filed a lawsuit against the 36 state governors at the Supreme Court in May, seeking complete autonomy for the country’s 774 local governments.
The suit, marked SC/CV/343/2024, aimed to address the long-standing issue of state governments’ interference with local government funds.
The Supreme Court made these pronouncements in its ongoing judgement in the suit filed by the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) seeking full autonomy for the LGAs.
