The Supreme Court on Friday struck out a suit filed by the 36 state governments and the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) challenging the Federal Government’s handling and distribution of recovered looted assets.

A seven-member panel of the apex court ruled unanimously that the case, filed directly before the Supreme Court, was procedurally flawed. In the lead judgment prepared by Justice Chidiebere Uwa and read by Justice Mohammed Idris, the court held that the plaintiffs wrongly invoked its original jurisdiction and that the proper venue for the case was the Federal High Court.

The suit, marked SC/CV/395/2021, alleged that the Federal Government between 2015 and 2021 recovered N1.8 trillion in stolen assets, alongside 167 properties, 450 vehicles, 300 trucks and cargoes, and over 20 million barrels of crude oil valued at more than N450 billion. The state governments claimed that these assets were not properly remitted into the Federation Account as mandated by the Constitution.

Instead, they argued, the funds were illegally funneled into the Consolidated Revenue Account (CRA) and other accounts not recognised by the Constitution. The plaintiffs maintained that such actions violated sections 162(1), 162(10), and 80 of the 1999 Constitution, as well as the Finance (Control and Management) Act of 1958.

They contended that proceeds from recovered assets must be treated as public revenue and shared equitably among the federal, state, and local governments through the Federation Account. The suit sought a declaration that the FG’s creation of separate Asset Recovery and Interim Forfeiture Recovery Accounts was unconstitutional, and demanded a remittance of the recovered assets into the Federation Account.

Furthermore, the governors called on the court to compel the Federal Government to provide a detailed account of all recovered assets since 2015 and to involve the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) in designing a framework for equitable distribution.