The Attorney Generals of the 36 states in the country have sued the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation for the failure of the government to remit recovered funds into the federal account.
They are arguing that proceeds from recovered assets must be remitted into the federal account as provided for in the Nigerian constitution.
They are also asking the Supreme Court to declare it unconstitutional for the President, through the federal Minister of Finance, the AGF, or any other authority to utilise, apply, allocate, expend and appropriate such proceeds to itself.
According to the, it is unconstitutional for the proceeds to be distributed without due allocation from the federation.”
The suit before the Supreme Court and marked as SC/CV/395/2021, stated that the Attorney Generals are seeking “a declaration that by the provisions of Section 162(1) and Section 162(10) of the Constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), all income, returns, proceeds or receipts howsoever described derived from confiscated, forfeited and/or recovered assets constitute revenue of the federal republic of Nigeria, which must be remitted to federation account for the collective benefit of the federal, state and local governments.
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“A declaration that the failure and/or refusal of President Muhammadu Buhari, the minister of finance, the office of the AGF, and the accountant-general of the federation, and all other relevant authorities and/or agencies of the federation to remit the receipts, income, returns or proceeds derived from all assets recovered, seized, confiscated and forfeited into the federation account to be distributed in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution” is unconstitutional.”
It was estimated that between 2015 till date, the Nigerian government secured both international and municipal forfeiture, recovery and repatriation of “stolen assets” in worth NI.84 trillion, about 167 properties, 450 Cars, 300 Trucks and cargoes, and 20,000,000 barrels of crude oil worth over N450million/
They claimed that the government failed to remit the recovered funds and items as required by the constitution.
