The Supreme Court has granted financial autonomy to the 774 local government councils in the country.

In a landmark judgment today, the apex court ordered the Federal Government to immediately start the direct payment of local government funds to the latter’s exclusive accounts.

In its lead judgment read by Justice EMMANUEL AGIM, the apex court noted that the 774 local government councils in the country should manage their funds themselves and dismissed preliminary objections of the defendants.

The apex court directed that Local Government allocations from the Federation Account should be paid directly to them henceforth, and not to state government coffers, as the state governors’ retention of the monies meant for the Local Governments truncates the latter’s activities.