The Supreme Court has fixed June 13 to hear a suit filed by the Federal Government against the 36 state governors over alleged misconduct in the handling of local government affairs.
Justice Garba Lawal fixed the date while ruling in an application for abridgment of time argued by Lateef Fgebemi, SAN, to allow time for all parties to file their processes and exchange same.
He ordered the 36 state governors of the federation to file their respective defences to a suit instituted against them by the federal government seeking full autonomy for the 774 local governments in the country.
He ordered that the eight states that were not in attendance at Thursday’s proceedings be served with fresh hearing notice.
The eight states are Borno, Kano, Kogi, Niger, Ogun, Osun, Oyo, and Sokoto, whose attorneys general were absent in court despite being served with hearing notice.
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 nonobjection from the attorneys general of the states of the federation.
The apex court also ordered the attorney general of the federation to file his reply within two days.
The suit is predicated on 27 grounds, among which are that the Nigerian Federation is a creation of the 1999 Constitution with the President as head of the federal executive arm of the Federation, who has sworn to uphold and give effect to the provisions of the Constitution.
