Four Justices out of a seven-man panel of Justices of the Supreme Court has turned down the request of the 36 state governors for an order of the apex court to compel the Federal Government to take up funding of capital projects for State High Courts, Sharia Court of Appeal and Customary Court of Appeal.
The four Justices upheld the opposition of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, SAN, and two other senior lawyers, Mahmud Magaji, SAN, and Musibawu Adetumbi, SAN, on the issue.
They upheld the arguments of Malami, Magaji and Adetumbi to the effect that capital projects for the three courts should be funded by the states and not the Federal Government.
The apex court Justices specifically agreed with Adetumbi that the 1999 Constitution has sufficiently provided the manner federal and state governments should fund their courts.
They further upheld his submission that part of the load that the constitution wants the Federal Government to carry is narrowed down in Section 84(7) while Section 121 also narrows down the load it wants the state governments to carry. Adetumbi’s opposition against the executive order and his prayer that it should be declared illegal, unconstitutional, voided and set aside was also upheld.
The four Justices are Mohammed Musa Dattijo,Centus Chima Nweze, Hellen Ogunwumiju and Uwani Musa Abba-Aji.
With the majority decision, the state governments are to continue the funding of the three courts as they have been doing since 1999.