The Presidential Executive Order No. 00-10 of 2020, signed in May by President Muhammadu Buhari on the funding of the courts, has been challenged by the 36 states of the federation at the Supreme Court.
Filing the suit through their respective attorneys general, the 36 states are seeking an order of the Supreme Court quashing Buhari’s Executive Order for being unconstitutional.
The sole respondent in the suit is Abubakar Malami (SAN), the Attorney-General of the Federation.
The 36 states, in the suit filed on their behalf by nine Senior Advocates of Nigeria, led by a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mr Augustine Alegeh (SAN); and six other lawyers, explained that Buhari, by virtue of the Executive Order he signed on May 20, 2020, had pushed the Federal Government’s responsibility of funding both the capital and recurrent expenditures of the state high courts, Sharia Court of Appeal and the Customary Court of Appeal, to the state governments.
According to them, Buhari’s Executive Order No. 00-10 of 2020 was a clear violation of sections 6 and 8(3) of the 1999 Constitution, which make it the responsibility of the Federal Government to fund the listed courts.
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The 36 states, which said they had been funding the capital projects in the listed courts since 2009, are also praying the Supreme Court to order the Federal Government to make a refund to them.
They said:
Since the 5th of May 2009, the defendant had not funded the capital and recurrent expenditures of the state high courts, Sharia Court of Appeal and the Customary Court of Appeal of the plaintiffs’ states, apart from paying only the salaries of the judicial officers of the said courts.
The plaintiffs’ states have been solely responsible for funding the capital and recurrent expenditures of the state high courts, Sharia Court of Appeal and the Customary Court of Appeal of the plaintiffs’ states, which the defendant has failed and/or refused to fund.
