Monday May 12, 2025 |
Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Olayemi Cardoso, to “immediately disclose whether the bank has commenced the direct disbursement of allocations to the 774 local government councils in Nigeria from the Federation Account with the CBN and to widely publish the amounts, if any, so far directly sent to each of the councils.”
SERAP also urged Mr Cardoso to “immediately disclose whether any direct payment has been made from the Federation Account with the CBN to the local government councils in Rivers State and to explain the rationale for any such payment.”
The Supreme Court had last July in a landmark judgment held that no governor or other agencies have the power to keep, control, or disburse in any manner the allocations from the Federation Account meant for local government councils, and that any such allocations must be paid directly to democratically elected councils.
In the Freedom of Information request dated 10 May 2025 and signed by SERAP deputy director Kolawole Oluwadare, the organisation said: “The CBN ought to act in the public interest to ensure that the 774 councils in the country directly get their own allocations from the Federation Account, as ordered by the Supreme Court.”
SERAP said, “The CBN has a constitutional and statutory duty to protect the allocations in the Federation Account and the public funds disbursed from that Account directly to each of the constitutionally recognised three tiers of government.
“The CBN also has the constitutional and statutory duty to ensure that no part of the federation is governed contrary to the Nigerian Constitution or by anybody that is not constitutionally empowered to do so.”
