SERAP drags CBN to court over failure to disclose LG allocations

Cardoso

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project has filed a lawsuit against the Central Bank of Nigeria “over the failure to disclose the details of any direct payments to the 774 local government councils in Nigeria including the amounts sent to each council.”

In a statement released by its Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare on Sunday and made available to PUNCH Online, SERAP’s suit followed a landmark judgment by the Supreme Court last July, which held that allocations from the Federation Account with the CBN must be paid directly to democratically elected local government councils and that no governor has the power to keep, control or use the money meant for the councils.

In the suit number FHC/L/MSC/521/2025 filed last Friday at the Federal High Court, Lagos, SERAP is asking the court to “direct and compel the CBN to disclose the details of any direct payments to the 774 local government councils in Nigeria including the amounts sent to each council since the Supreme Court judgment.

The statement also noted that SERAP is also asking the court to “direct and compel the CBN to disclose whether any direct payment has been made from the Federation Account with the CBN to the local government councils in Rivers State and to explain the rationale for any such payment.”

In the suit, SERAP argued that, “The CBN should make it possible for citizens to have access to the details of any direct payments to the 774 local government councils to ensure transparency and accountability, and judge whether the CBN and other agencies are complying with the Supreme Court judgment.”

SERAP also argued that “Granting the reliefs sought would go a long way in promoting the values and principles that underlie the Nigerian Constitution 1999 [as amended] and are inherent characteristics of an open democratic society.”

According to SERAP, “State governors are starving local governments of funds and putting them in peril, despite the Supreme Court’s binding orders. State governors’ blatant disregard for the Supreme Court’s orders undermines the integrity of the court and poses a direct challenge to the rule of law.”