LIMITATIONS AND PROSPECTS IN ACTIONS AGAINST LOCAL GOVERNMENT AUTHORITIES IN NIGERIA

Abstract

This paper examines the constraints usually encountered by plaintiffs who attempt to institute actions against Local Government Authorities in Nigeria. Laws creating Local Government Authorities usually contain certain limiting clauses which either requires claimants to serve notification of intention to sue or to bring the intended suit within a given time frame. The legality or otherwise of these limitation clauses have been attended with dissimilar opinions. The decisions that limitation clauses are legal and constitutional seem to have an overwhelming opinion in the spectrum of cases that form the on-going debate. This article, therefore, concludes that the limitation clauses more often than not constitute a delay to the plaintiff’s right to enforce a claim, especially the option of waiver, and when it is not exercised in favour of the claimant in cases of non-compliance by the claimant in the action. The fact that limitation clauses do not really impede access to court nor oust the jurisdiction of court is not really material; it is the seeming practice of a double standard, and the want of equal protection of rights capable of the limitation clauses that need re-visitation by the Supreme Court and policy makers, particularly at the local levels.