In affront to Supreme Court judgement, state lawmakers strip councils of 7.5 per cent federal allocation

The Cross River House of Assembly has okayed deducting 7.5 per cent from the monthly federal allocation of each of the state’s 18 local government areas.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the deduction is contained in the Local Government Amendment Bill 2025, which has passed its third reading in the House.

The bill passed through the second reading, the committee stage, on Friday and was subsequently passed for a third reading.

In addition to the 7.5 per cent monthly deduction, each council would commit N1 million into the purse of the State Reserve Fund.

The bill was sponsored by the Majority Leader of the assembly, Davies Ita of Abia State Constituency.

During the sitting, the Chairperson of the Joint Committee on Local Government, Chieftaincy Affairs and Rural Development, Eyo Bassey of Bakassi Constituency, laid the bill on the floor of the House, and it was formally accepted as a working document.

Mr Bassey said the State Local Government Law 2007 was first amended in 2008 and further amended in 2011, adding that “it has been harmonised for clarity now”.

After the committee stage, the lawmakers agreed to the following amendments.

They include upgrading the position of Head of Local Government Administration to the equivalent of Permanent Secretary and increasing the number of the chairperson’s statutory appointees to 50.

The amendment also prescribes other deductions from the gross monthly allocation of each council.

They include a monthly deduction of one per cent for the House oversight function, and 0.5 per cent for the state community and social development agency.

The bill also includes one per cent for the funding of the University of Cross River State and 0.5 per cent for the Office of the Auditor General.

The rest are four per cent for the state road maintenance agency and N1 million each for the state reserve fund.

Affront to Supreme Court judgement

The amendment by the Cross River assembly is a clear affront to the recent Supreme Court judgement.

Nigeria’s Supreme Court affirmed the financial autonomy of the country’s 774 local governments in a landmark judgement in July 2024.

The judgement abolished the traditional joint account between the state and the local governments. It empowered the accountant-general of the federation to bypass the state governments and disburse federal allocation directly to the local governments.

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In a previous move that undermined the financial autonomy of the local councils, the Governor of Cross River State, Bassey Otu, bought official vehicles for the council chairpersons and vice-chairpersons last year.