LG Funds: 36 Govs Fail To Stop NFIU Guidelines

The 36 state governors in the country have again failed in their bid to stop the implementation of guidelines issued by the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) stopping governors from directly tampering with local government funds.

The governors, under the auspices of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), had sued the NFIU challenging the legality of the guidelines.

When the matter came up on Monday at the Federal High Court 2, Abuja presided over by Hon. Justice Tsoho in suit No. FHC/Abj/CS/563/19, the judge declined a request by a counsel to the NGF to restraint NFIU from implementing the guidelines pending the determination of the suit.

Justice Tsoho in declining said since it is a constitutional matter, he will not “bother with interlocutory injunctions”.

When the matter came up on Tuesday, the absence of the lead Counsel to the NGF, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, also caused a delay. Fagbemi was at the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal and had initially applied for a stand down to 11:30am to enable him come and argue on the matter and was obliged.

But by 11:48 am, the matter was called up again but another lawyer holding brief for him applied yet again for another 30mins stand down as his principal was still busy at the Court of Appeal.

Arthur Obi-Okafor SAN leading Prof. Deji Adekunle SAN for the NFIU, informed the Court that they ”had shown good faith by waiting for the Plaintiffs Counsel till 11:30am and there is no guarantee he will be through at the Court of Appeal if the matter is stood down for another 30 minutes”.

He also informed the Court that they are already challenging the jurisdiction of the court to hear the matter which has been served on all the parties.

The lawyer holding brief for Mr Fagbemi SAN for the Plaintiffs while not opposing an adjournment urged the Court to restrain the NFIU from proceeding with the enforcement of the Guidelines but the court declined to grant the request.

The Court thereafter adjourned the matter to 23rd October 2019 to hear all pending applications

The NFIU had on May 6, 2019 issued ‘Guidelines to Reduce Vulnerabilities Created by Cash Withdrawals from Local Government Funds throughout Nigeria,’ which stopped governors from tampering with funds meant for local government areas.

The guidelines took effect from June 1, 2019.

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