Court Funding: 36 State Governments sue FG at Supreme Court

The 36 states of the Federation on Monday, September 28 2020, took the Federal Government to the Supreme Court seeking an order of the Supreme Court to quash President Muhammadu Buhari’s executive order on the funding of courts, which he signed on May 20.

The states have challenged the presidential executive order no. 00-10 of 2020 which transferred the Federal Government’s responsibility of funding both the capital and recurrent expenditures of the state High Courts, Sharia Courts of Appeal, and the Customary Courts of Appeal, to the state governments.

The suit was filed for the states by nine Senior Advocates of Nigeria, led by a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Augustine Alegeh.

The Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami was listed as the sole respondent in the suit.

The 36 states are contending that the order is a clear violation of sections 6 and 8(3) of the 1999 constitution, which makes it the responsibility of the Federal Government to fund the listed courts (state High Courts, Sharia Courts of Appeal, and the Customary Courts of Appeal).

While claiming that they had been funding the capital projects in the listed courts since 2009, they are also asking the Supreme Court to order the Federal Government to make a refund to them.