SERAP is urging the court to “direct and compel the CBN to disclose the details of any direct payments to the 774 local government councils in Nigeria
SERAP Drags CBN to Court Over Alleged Failure To Disclose LG Allocations
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has filed a lawsuit against the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for allegedly failing to disclose details of direct payments made to the country’s 774 local government councils.
SERAP’s Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, made the disclosure in a statement issued on Sunday.
The legal action comes on the heels of a landmark Supreme Court judgment delivered in July 2024, which ruled that allocations from the Federation Account must be paid directly to democratically elected local government councils. The judgment also emphasized that state governors have no authority to withhold or control such funds.
In the suit filed last Friday at the Federal High Court in Lagos (Suit No. FHC/L/MSC/521/2025), SERAP is urging the court to “direct and compel the CBN to disclose the details of any direct payments to the 774 local government councils in Nigeria, including the amounts sent to each council since the Supreme Court judgment.”
The organization is also demanding clarification on whether direct payments have been made to the local government councils in Rivers State and, if so, the rationale behind such disbursements.
“The CBN should make it possible for citizens to have access to the details of any direct payments to the 774 local government councils to ensure transparency and accountability, and judge whether the CBN and other agencies are complying with the Supreme Court judgment,” the statement read.
The case marks another bold move by SERAP in its ongoing campaign for public transparency and fiscal accountability across all levels of government.
BREAKING: We’ve sued the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) over the failure to disclose the details of any direct payments from the Federation Account to the 774 local government councils in Nigeria, including the amounts sent to each council.@cenbank — SERAP (@SERAPNigeria) May 25, 2025
“Granting the reliefs sought would go a long way in promoting the values and principles that underlie the Nigerian Constitution 1999 [as amended] and are inherent characteristics of an open democratic society.
“State governors are starving local governments of funds and putting them in peril, despite the Supreme Court’s binding orders. State governors’ blatant disregard for the Supreme Court’s orders undermines the integrity of the court and poses a direct challenge to the rule of law.
“The CBN ought to act in the public interest to ensure that the 774 councils in the country directly get their own money from the Federation Account, as ordered by the Supreme Court.
“The CBN also has the constitutional and statutory duty to ensure that no part of the Federation is governed contrary to the Nigerian Constitution or by anybody that is not constitutionally empowered to do so.
“The CBN should be facilitating compliance with the Supreme Court’s orders. If state governors get away with ignoring the court, it will undermine the ability of the bank to credibly perform its statutory duties.
“States and the FCT have continued to undermine and endanger the existence of local governments and their ability to effectively function as the third tier of government as envisioned under the Nigerian Constitution.
“The CBN has a constitutional and statutory duty to protect the allocations in the Federation Account and the public funds disbursed from that Account directly to each of the constitutionally recognized three tiers of government.” Read More
