The Supreme Court has ordered the 36 state governors of the federation to, within seven days, file their respective defences to a suit filed by the federal government seeking for full autonomy for the 774 local government areas (LGAs) in the country.
The apex court also ordered the attorney-general of the federation (AGF) and minister of justice that upon receipt of the governors’ defences, he must file his reply within two days.
Justice Garba Lawal issued the order on Thursday while ruling on an application for an abridgement of time argued by the AGF, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN.
Justice Lawal, who led a seven-man panel of the apex court, said that the decision of the court was predicated on the national urgency of the suit and the non-objection from the attorneys-general of the 36 states of the federation.
The Supreme Court held that filing of all processes and exchanging of same must be completed within the time and subsequently fixed June 13 for hearing of the suit.
Justice Lawal ordered that the eight states that were not in attendance at Thursday’s proceedings must be served with fresh hearing notice.
The eight states were Borno, Kano, Kogi, Niger, Ogun, Osun, Oyo and Sokoto, whose attorneys-general (AGs) were absent in court, despite being served with hearing notice.
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