The Federal Government have have won the case against the state governors over the financial autonomy from the Local Government joint account.
This was as Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court delivered the ruling on Monday in favour of the Federal Government.
Recall that The Nigerian Governors Forum had sued the FG and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), after the later had in June 2019 issued guidelines aimed at curbing crime vulnerabilities created by cash withdrawals from local government accounts by various state governments.
NFIU issued a guideline on money laundering risk and vulnerabilities advising all banks not to honour transactions from joint accounts.
A statement by the NFIU directed that the States and Local Governments Joint Accounts should be used only for receiving funds and subsequently transferring them to Local government accounts only.
Reacting to the judgement, Chief Media Analyst, Ahmed Dikko, NFIU boss stressed that “from this judgement and from today all transactions on Local Government funds will be disclosed to ICPC and EFCC 100 percent and will be reported continuously”.
