The Supreme Court has declared as unlawful and unconstitutional the Executive Order 10 (EO10) issued by President Muhammadu Buhari on the funding of State Judiciary and Legislature.
In a split decision on Friday, majority of the court’s seven-member panel agreed that the President exceeded his constitutional powers in issuing the EO10.
The judgment was on the suit filed by the 36 States against the Federal Government on the funding of the Judiciary and the constitutionality of the EO10.
Six out of the seven members of the panel proceeded to void and set aside the EO10.
The majority decision also held that it was not the responsibility of the Federal Government to fund the capital and recurrent expenditures of the courts created for States under Section six of the Constitution.
All the seven members agreed that the States were not entitled to be refunded all they have spent before now to maintain those courts.
Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari had signed into law, Executive Order No 10 of 2020 cited as “the implementation of financial autonomy for state legislature and judiciary Order, 2020”.
A key provision of EO10 now declared unconstitutional was the enforcement financial autonomy of the legislature and judiciary of the states.
It gave power to the Accountant-General of the Federation to deduct from the allocations due to a state from the Federation Account, any sums appropriated for the legislature or judiciary of that state which the state fails to release to its legislature or judiciary as the case may be and to pay the funds directly to the state’s legislature or judiciary concerned.
