Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has faulted the Federal Government’s suit against the 36 governors in the country over local government autonomy.
The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), on behalf of the Federal Government, recently dragged governors of the 36 states of the federation to the Supreme Court.
The suit, marked SC/CV/343/2024, is seeking to compel them to grant full autonomy to Local Governments in their respective states.
But speaking on Monday at the on-going Justice Reform Summit organised by Lagos State Judiciary with the theme: “Enhancing the Administration of Justice for Economic Growth, Investment Protection and Security in Lagos”, Sanwo-Olu said Lagos should have been left out of the legal action.
The governor argued that the Attorney General of the Federation should have identified those that were not in compliance with the law before filing a blanket lawsuit against all states.
Sanwo-Olu noted that infringement on the local government autonomy was an affront to the spirit of the constitution to which the judiciary must make a clear interpretation for equity and fairness.
He said: “It is interesting to read the news that the Honorable Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation has sued all the 36 states because Governors did not give autonomy to the third tier of government. The only mistake, which I am going to tell our Attorney General, is that some of us are in compliance.
“The Attorney General should have done his due diligence to identify which states are not in compliance, so that we don’t sue all the 36 states together. You can determine which states are not violating the Constitution. If it is three, four or five states that are in compliance, then you can sue the 31 states violating autonomy of the Local Governments. That is part of the back work that we need to do.”