By Uche Mbah
A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has ruled that the Federal Government should continue to deduct from State allocation, thereby dismissing the suit filed by the State Governors of the 36 states seeking to stop such deductions.
36 State Governors had filed a suit seeking to stop deductions of $418 million Paris Club refund debt.
But the Presiding Judge, Justice Inyang Ekwo, Friday, ruled that the suit lacked merit. Besides, the Judge said, filling the case in the first place was an abuse of Court process and that the 36 Attorneys General do not have locus standi-that is to say they have no basis for filling the case in the first place.
The Counsel for the plaintiffs, Sunday Ibrahim Ameh (SAN), had requested the Court to stop the deduction of $418 million from their accounts. He had pleaded with the court to suspend the deductions untill the case is concluded, but the Judge refused.
More details later…
