The Supreme Court has dismissed a suit filed by the 36 state governments and the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), challenging the federal government’s handling of over N1.8 trillion in recovered looted funds.
In a unanimous decision on Friday, a seven-member panel of the apex court held that it lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the suit. The lead judgment, prepared by Justice Chidiebere Uwa and read by Justice Mohammed Idris, stated that the matter falls under the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court, not the Supreme Court.
The suit, marked SC/CV/395/2021, was originally filed in 2021. The states alleged that between 2015 and 2021, the federal government recovered looted assets amounting to N1,836,906,543,658.73, along with 167 properties, 450 cars, 300 trucks and cargoes, and 20 million barrels of crude oil valued at over N450 billion.
The governors argued that the federal government failed to remit these recoveries into the Federation Account, as required by the Constitution, choosing instead to divert the funds into the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) and other accounts not recognised by the nation’s supreme law.
According to the plaintiffs, the CRF is “meant for the federal government’s share of the Federation Account and other federal earnings, including receipts from licenses and land revenue, administrative fees, sales and rent of government property, interest from federal investments, repayments from state governments, and personal income tax of members of the armed forces”.
They contended that the creation of special accounts—namely, the asset recovery account and interim forfeiture recovery account—into which the proceeds from recovered assets were paid, contravened the constitutional provisions.
The plaintiffs maintained that “numerous recoveries of illegally acquired assets have been secured through anti-corruption and law enforcement agencies since 2015,” citing the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), the Nigerian Police Force, and the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation as key players.
Relying on sections 162(1), 162(10), and 80 of the Constitution, and section 2 of the Finance (Control and Management) Act, 1958, the governors argued that all recovered assets, both in cash and kind, constitute revenue and must be paid into the Federation Account.
“It is unconstitutional to remit or divert revenue payable into the Federation Account to the Consolidated Revenue Account of the Federal Government or any other account whatsoever, or to apply the said revenue to any other purpose,” the plaintiffs asserted.
Consequently, the state governments sought a declaration that all proceeds from recovered assets must be remitted into the Federation Account for the benefit of all tiers of government.
They also asked the court to compel the federal government to remit N1.8 trillion in cash and N450 billion in non-cash assets, recovered since 2015, into the Federation Account.
In addition, the plaintiffs prayed for an order directing the federal government and relevant officials to provide a detailed inventory of all unrecovered or unremitted assets. They further sought an order for the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) to devise modalities for distributing recovered assets among the federal, state, and local governments.
However, the Supreme Court struck out the case, citing lack of jurisdiction, effectively handing a legal victory to the federal government.