137 LGAs in Lagos, other South West states share N63.95bn from FAAC allocations

A total of 137 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Lagos, other South Western states shared N63.95 billion out of the N278.88 billion Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) allocations in July 2024.

 Other South Western states include: Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti.

The FAAC allocation report obtained by WESTERN POST revealed that Lagos with 20 LGAs, followed by Oyo States with 33 LGAs obtained the highest FAAC allocation among the South Western states in the month under review.

Lagos state was allocated N26.93 billion, while Oyo state was allocated N11.92 billon. Other states, Osun was allocated N8.06 billion; Ogun, N6.37 billion; Ondo state, N5.84billion; Ekiti, N4.83 billion allocated in July 2024. 

The report, however, revealed that Kano state with 44 GAs obtained the second highest allocation of about N15.36billion as Federal Capital Territory (FCT) with a total six LGAs was allocated N3.62 billion, the lowest among the 774 LGAs in the month under review.  

The latest disclosure is on the backdrop of supreme court ruling that the Federal Government should pay allocations directly to local government councils from the federation account.

Delivering judgment in the suit, a seven-member panel of justices held that state governments have continued to abuse their powers by retaining and using the funds meant for LGAs.

The apex court also ordered the federal government to withhold allocations of LGs governed by unelected officials appointed by the governor.

Emmanuel Agim, who read the lead judgment, said states are mandated to ensure that their local government councils are democratically elected, ⁠and that governors cannot use their powers to dissolve democratically elected local government councils.

“The amount standing to the credit of local government councils must be paid by the federation to the local government councils and not by any other person or body,” the judge said.

“The said amount must be paid to local government councils that are democratically elected.

“An order of injunction is hereby granted restraining the defendants from collecting funds belonging to the local government councils when no democratically elected local government councils are in place.

“An order that henceforth no state government should be paid monies standing to the credit of the local government councils.

“An order for immediate enforcement and compliance with these orders by the state governments and successive governments henceforth.”

WESTENR POST had report that FAAC disbursed the sum of N2.32trilliion to the three tiers of government in June 2024 from the total revenue generated in May 2024.

The amount disbursed comprised N1,223.89billion from the Statutory Account, N587.46billion from Exchange Gain for the month of May, N15.78billion from Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL), and N497.66bn from Valued Added Tax (VAT). The Federal Government received a total of N365.81beiillon from the N2,324.79trillion, States and Local Governments received a total of N388.42biillion and N282.48billion respectively.

“The sum of N106.50billonn was shared among the oil producing states from the 13per cent derivation fund. The revenue generating agencies comprising Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), and Nigerian Up stream Development Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) received N20.85billion, N36.33billion, and N19.46billion respectively as cost of revenue collections. Further breakdown of revenue allocation distribution to the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) revealed that a total net amount of N232.82billion was disbursed to the FGN consolidated revenue account; N5.58billion was received as a share of derivation and ecology; N2.79billon as stabilization fund; N9.38billion for the development of natural resources; and N10.12billion to the FCT Abuja,” FAAC report for June 2024 revealed.