Governance has frozen in local councils in Osun State for about a year now, arising from the federal government’s withholding of their statutory financial allocations, as two political parties flex their muscles over which one is actually in control of these councils. This is a clear case of partisanship trumping the public good and legalism. However, this anomaly should end now, with a recent Supreme Court’s declaration that this seizure of council funds is “a grave breach of the Constitution.”
The contention, leading to this violation by the federal government, is rooted in the conduct of elections in the 30 local government areas of the state by the administration of former Governor Gboyega Oyetola in October 2022, in the wake of his electoral defeat by Ademola Adeleke, who thereafter became his successor. Mr Oyetola’s All Progressives Congress (APC), the ruling party at the centre, had won all the 30 LGA chairpersons and 332 councillorship seats in that election.
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But subsequently, Mr Adeleke, who was elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), dissolved these 30 grassroots governance structures on his assumption of office and organised another set of elections in February 2025. Interestingly, the PDP candidates took their turn in sweeping all the posts in those polls.
Since then, both parties have been wrestling with each other, with the main battleground shifting to the courts. There, conflicting judgments arising from the State High Courts to the Federal High Courts and different divisions of the Court of Appeal, have contributed to stoking the fire, rather than resolving the issue.
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More so, the APC chairpersons have continued to hold on to their offices in defiance of PDP and its candidates who purportedly won thereafter, and they still occupy the secretariats of the councils, under police protection, despite the fact that their tenures could be said to have officially ended in October 2025.
Ultimately, the battle landed in the Supreme Court, where last December it delivered a judgement that descended heavily on the Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, and the federal government for withholding the funds, whilst the substantive issue of who the rightful holders of office are remains unresolved. In a 6-1 judgment, delivered by Justice Mohammed Idris, he ordered that the allocations be “directly channelled to the local accounts.” The rule of law dictates that this decision should be complied with without further delay.
Mr Fagbemi’s complaint of contempt against the Attorney General of Osun State rebounded when he was told that he was more in contempt “by not paying the funds as required by law.” The AGF had, in a 26 March 2025 letter, directed that all Osun councils’ funds should be withheld, pending the resolution of the local government impasse. Records of the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) showed that between March and August 2025, a total of ₦73.7 billion was due to the state’s 30 local government areas.
With the illegality of sequestering the councils’ funds settled, the earlier-mentioned issue of which of the party’s elected chairpersons and councillors should be the legitimate overseers of the 30 LGAs remains a jigsaw. The apex court had declined to adjudicate on the substantive matter, stressing that the Attorney General of Osun State erred by usurping the powers of the chairpersons. It said, “Those who won the local government elections and having been inaugurated are the jurisdict persons that can sue and be sued directly.”
But Justice Emmanuel Agim, in a minority judgment, differed. He is of the opinion that the Attorney General of Osun State acted within his powers. However, he concurred with the lead judgment on the unconstitutionality of the funds seizure, adding that, “Because it was capable of crippling the activities of the councils.” Sadly, it has happened already.
ALSO READ: Osun Assembly accuses Oyetola of illegal control of council funds, warns UBA
The stakes are indeed high, with the accrued amount now totalling ₦130 billion, according to Governor Adeleke, in a recent broadcast over the imbroglio. Without the funds, payment of the salaries of primary school teachers and health workers in the state, as well as fulfilling the monthly financial obligations to retirees, has been near impossible. This continues to expose many families to dire existential threats, with severe consequences.
This ongoing impasse, with all its strong political overtones, demands that all the parties to the dispute should consider the bigger picture over their narrow and selfish interests, by engaging in a dialogue to extricate Osun State from this mire. Evidently, neither the APC nor the PDP seems to have won the substantive case yet. And since the judiciary is failing in its resolution of the issue, it remains a game of political brinkmanship, which is highly unfair to those at the receiving end. PREMIUM TIMES hopes that common sense prevails, ultimately.
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