BEVERLY HILLS, July 5, (THEWILL) – A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has ordered the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Federal Government to pay the sum of N960bn to the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON).
THEWILL recalls that the incorporated trustee of ALGON had in 2013, dragged the Federal Government to court over alleged illegal deductions made by the government from the local government share of the Federation Account.
In the suit, the trustees alleged that the deductions were made to liquidate the London Club debts which the Federal Government had borrowed from June 1995 to March 2002.
Justice Adeniyi Ademola, in his ruling on Tuesday granted a ‘garnishee order absolute’ in favour of the incorporated trustees of ALGON and ordered the CBN to debit the Federal Government’s account from funds already set aside by the apex bank, pursuant to an earlier ‘garnishee order nisi’ on April 1, 2015.
Director-General of ALGON, Ted Iseghohi-Edward, while reacting to the judgement, disclosed that all 774 members of the association, together with the state governments and the Presidency would meet to decide how the funds would be disbursed to the local governments across the country.
Story by David Oputah
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