Court bars Nigerian govt from deducting N16 billion from Anambra’s allocations…

The Federal High Court in Awka has blocked a move by the federal government aimed at helping the local government areas (LGAs) in Anambra State to recover over N16 billion diverted by their state government.

The money represents the local governments’ share of the Paris Club refund, which the Anambra State Government received on their behalf from the federal government but refused to hand over to them.

The judge, Nnamdi Dimgba, declared in a judgement handed down on 21 June that the recovery approach adopted by the federal government through the Minister of Finance was unconstitutional.

According to Mr Dimgba, the federal government overstepped its legal authorities with its decision to deduct the money from the allocations of the state and pay it directly to the joint account of the local government areas.

The court agreed that the state government’s failure to pay local governments’ share of the money into the State Joint Local Government Account “is clearly a constitutional breach”.

Citing section 162(5) of the Nigerian constitution and the Allocation of Revenue (Federation Account Etc) Act, the judge said: “None of the relevant provisions empowers the 1st Defendant (finance minister) to make deductions from the statutory allocation due to a state from the Federation Account on the basis that the State has failed to transfer the LGCs share into the State Joint Local Government Account.”

He said the federal government would require a court order to help the local government areas recover their money.

The fund in question is a fraction of what the federal government has released to all 36 states of the federation and their local government areas as Paris Club refunds over the years.

The refunds followed the discovery that money was over-deducted from allocations of states and local governments across the country between 1995 and 2002 to offset Nigeria’s indebtedness to the Paris Club and the London Club.