The Supreme Court has thrown out a lawsuit brought by the 36 states and the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) that challenged the Federal Government’s handling of recovered looted funds.
A unanimous seven-member panel concluded that the suit was improperly filed before the apex court, with the lead judgment stating that the plaintiffs had wrongly invoked the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction.
The court determined that the matter should have been heard by a Federal High Court.
The states and NGF had argued that between 2015 and 2021, the Federal Government recovered over ₦1.8 trillion in cash and non-cash assets (including properties, cars, trucks, and crude oil valued at over ₦450 million) but allegedly failed to deposit these into the Federation Account as mandated by the Constitution.
Instead, they claimed the funds were illegally diverted into the Consolidated Revenue Accounts (CRA) and other unauthorized accounts.
The plaintiffs contended that all recovered funds should be considered revenue for the Federation Account, benefiting federal, state, and local governments.
They had sought a court order to compel the remittance of these recovered funds and to require the Federal Government to provide a detailed account of all unremitted assets.
They also wanted the Supreme Court to mandate the Federal Government, through the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission (RMFAC), to establish a method for distributing these recovered assets among the federating units.
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