The 36 state Governors in Nigeria have dragged the federal government to Supreme Court demanding the court to set aside the Presidential Executive Order no. 00-10 of 2020 which Mr. President signed on May 22, 2020, on the funding of Courts.
The suit, jointly signed by the 36 governors challenging the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) office and at the same time the defendant to the suit.
The suit was filed by the counsel to the governors, Austin Alegeh (SAN) dated September 16, 2020, demanded an order to compel the federal government to refund each of the states the amount expended for funding the capital expenditure of High Courts, Sharia Courts of Appeal and customary Courts of Appeal of the states of the Federation.
The states governors are contesting that the Executive Order has gone contrary to sections 6 and 8(3) and item 21(e) of the third Schedule of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended which saddled the federal government with the sole responsibility of funding all capital and recurrent expenditure of all the above-mentioned courts being courts created under Section 6 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Meanwhile, no date has been fixed for the hearing of the suit.