May 23, (THEWILL) – A Federal High Court in Abuja, presided over by Justice Inyang Ekwo, on Monday, delivered a judgement in favour of the Federal government and Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), on Local government joint accounts nationwide.
The NFIU had in June 2019 issued guidelines aimed at curbing crime vulnerabilities created by cash withdrawals from local government accounts by various state governments.
The Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF), however, dragged the federal government and NFIU to court for interfering with state government powers to initiate transactions on local government joint accounts, citing provisions of the 1999 constitution.
The NFIU issued a guideline on money laundering risk and vulnerabilities, advising all banks not to honour transactions from joint accounts.
It directed that the States/Local Governments Joint Accounts should be used only for receiving funds and subsequently transferring them to local government accounts only.
The guidelines also reduced cash withdrawal from local government accounts to N500,000 daily.
While reacting to the judgement on Monday, the Director/CEO of NFIU, Modibbo Tukur, said the judgement was good because the federal government was always ready to protect both states and local governments, by making funds available for their governance responsibility.
Chief Media Analyst, Ahmed Dikko, NFIU boss, stressed that “from this judgement and from today, all transactions on Local Government funds will be disclosed to ICPC and EFCC 100 percent and will be reported continuously.”
He stressed further that funds can now be decided on by local councils which can be channelled to improving local security.
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