*23 local government areas, as listed in the First Schedule, Part I of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999. The list is constitutional, not administrative: a state may create development areas, but only an alteration of the Constitution can create a local government that draws from the Federation Account. Section 162(5)–(8) routes each council's share through a State Joint Local Government Account controlled by the state government — the arrangement the Supreme Court ruled against in Attorney-General of the Federation v. Attorney-General of Abia State & 35 Ors (11 July 2024), holding that allocations must go directly to democratically elected councils.*
The 23 councils#
- Abua/Odual
- Ahoada East
- Ahoada West
- Akuku-Toru
- Andoni
- Asari-Toru
- Bonny
- Degema
- Eleme
- Emohua
- Etche
- Gokana
- Ikwerre
- Khana
- Obio/Akpor
- Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni
- Ogu/Bolo
- Okrika
- Omuma
- Opobo/Nkoro
- Oyigbo
- Port Harcourt
- Tai
Notes on the roster#
Khana, Gokana, Tai and Eleme are the four Ogoni LGAs — the territory of the 1990 Ogoni Bill of Rights, the 1995 executions and the UNEP clean-up that has still not been completed. Rivers local government councils were at the centre of the 2023–25 Wike–Fubara war, with rival sets of chairmen and a Supreme Court ruling that the 2024 council elections were void.
References
Sources#
- Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), First Schedule Part I
- INEC local government delimitation register
- Supreme Court of Nigeria, SC/CV/343/2024, judgment of 11 July 2024 (local government financial autonomy)