The out of court settlement between the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Government over the battle on the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) has again suffered a set back.

The parties were expected to report to the Supreme Court on Thursday, but could not do so because no agreement had been reached.

The Federal Government, through its counsel, Chief Wole Olanipekun told the court that they were yet to agree to the terms of settlement.

He, therefore, prayed the court for an adjournment so as to enable them reach a formidable settlement.

However, the 36 state governments, through their lead counsel, Adegboyega Awomolo SAN, told the court that they wanted it to adjudicate on the matter since the parties had not been able to come up with possible solutions.

Olanipekun had earlier told the court that the matter in contention was political and that the court should give the parties more time to explore further solutions.

In his response, Awomolo had insisted that the matter before the court was constitutional and not political.

He prayed the court to hear and give a definite pronouncement on the suit which had been pending since 1998.

Subsequently,  the court, presided over by Justice Christopher Chukwuma-Ene,  fixed May 9, 2013 for reports of settlement.

The 36 states of the federation dragged the Federal Government before the Supreme Court over plans to transfer $1 billion from the excess crude account to a new a new account to be known as the SWF.

The apex court had ordered the parties to go and meet out of court and come back with the report of settlement.

At the last adjourned date, counsel for the Federal Government, Austin Alegeh, told the court that the state government had just submitted additional terms of settlement and that he would need time to study and respond to them.

Though the case was filed by the 36 states governors in 2008, however, the Federal Government approached the court pleading it to allow the parties to explore amicable resolution of the case through negotiation.

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