Supreme Court declares Executive Order 10 unlawful, dismisses Governors’ N66bn suit

The Supreme Court has declared as unlawful and unconstitutional, Executive Order 10 (EO10) on the funding of State Judiciary and Legislature. In a split decision on Friday, a majority of the court’s seven-member panel agreed that the President exceeded his constitutional powers in issuing the EO10.

Six out of the seven members of the panel proceeded to void and set aside the EO10 issued by President Muhammadu Buhari. The apex court also dismissed the N66 billion suit filed by the state governors against the Federal Government.

The 36 states governors had in the suit sought an order of the 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. They had also applied for an order of the apex court to compel the Federal Government to pay them N66 billion naira, being an amount they have so far spent on capital projects for the three courts.

The governors informed the apex court that the three courts were the courts of the Federation and as such, the funding of their capital project should flow from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation.