Supreme Court nullifies Executive Order 10

The Supreme Court in a split decision on Friday declared Executive Order 10 (EO10) on the funding of State Judiciary and Legislature promulgated by President Muhammadu Buhari unlawful and unconstitutional.

Six of the seven-member panel presiding over the suit, in a majority judgement asserted that President Buhari exceeded his constitutional powers in issuing the Executive Order 10. The six judges, therefore, nullified and set aside the EO10 proclaimed by President Buhari.

The Supreme Court further dismissed the N66 billion suit filed by the governors of the 36 states of the federation against the Federal Government. The 36 governors had in a suit sought an order of the Supreme 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. The governors also sought an order of the court to compel the Federal Government to pay them N66 billion, being an amount, they have so far spent on capital projects for the three courts.

The governors told the Supreme Court that the three courts were the courts of the Federation and as such, the funding of their capital project should be from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation.

President Muhammadu Buhari had signed the EO10 into law in May 2020 and set up a committee to work out strategies and modalities for the implementation of financial autonomy for the State Legislature and State Judiciary.