The lingering battle over control of Osun State’s 30 local governments has resurfaced following Governor Ademola Adeleke’s re-election victory, as one of the council chairmen who were shut out of their offices for more than a year attempted on Monday to take over the local government secretariat.
A video seen on Monday by PREMIUM TIMES showed supporters of Mr Adeleke and his Accord Party gathered at the Odo Otin Local Government Area secretariat while Adewale Adeyinka, who was elected chairman in the February 2025 local government election, attempted to resume office.
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Mr Adeyinka apparently sought to leverage the euphoria of Governor Adeleke’s re-election victory in Saturday’s election to break the year-long stalemate that has denied him and fellow elected officials access to local government secretariats across the state for over a year.
“Today, the authentic Executive Chairman of Odo Otin Local Government, Adewale Adeyinka, has resumed back to the office,” a post accompanying the video said.
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PREMIUM TIMES could not reach Mr Adeyinka, as calls to his phone numbers went unanswered. He has also not made a public statement on his resumption.
The development comes days after Mr Adeleke, the Accord Party candidate, defeated his closest challenger, Bola Oyebamiji of the All Progressives Congress (APC), with 511,067 votes in the Saturday, August 15 governorship election.
However, the resumption in Odo Otin should not yet be interpreted as evidence that all 30 councils have been taken over by Governor Adeleke-aligned chairmen, as PREMIUM TIMES has only independently established the development in Odo Otin.
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Mr Adeyinka was among the local government officials elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the local government elections conducted in February last year by Governor Adeleke’s administration.
At the time of the local council elections, Mr Adeleke belonged to the PDP, which cleared all the chairmanship and councilorship seats across the state. The governor abandoned the crisis-ridden PDP last year to join the Accord Party, with his supporters including the elected local government officials moving with him to his new party.
The February 2025 local coouncil elections were held amid lingering crisis which stemmed from the dissolution of former local government officials elected on the platform of the APC during former Governor Adegboyega Oyetola’s adminstration.
The uneding clash between the sacked officials elected on the APC platform and the Osun State Government led by Governor Adeleke alongside the local council officials that emerged from the later election, has thrown local governments into disarray across the state. The crisis has led to the shutdown of local government secretariats and denial of access to local government allocations, which have been a subject of keenly fought legal cases.
Court interventions have hardly brought any resolution as the parties tended to interprete rulings to back their claim to the local governments.
Some in Mr Adeleke’s camp have perhaps seen the governor’s victory from Saturday’s election as a reset of the local government situation to their advantage.
The development could signal a fresh attempt by Adeleke’s administration and its political allies to assert control over the councils after years of legal and political disputes over which faction has the legitimate mandate to administer the local governments.
A crisis that has refused to go away
The local government dispute dates back to the final months of the administration of former Governor Gboyega Oyetola, when APC’s candidates won the October 2022 council elections.
After Mr Adeleke assumed office in November 2022, his administration dissolved the APC-led councils, relying on a court judgement that had nullified the election. The decision triggered a prolonged legal battle and, at different points, attempts by the rival factions to take control of council secretariats.
The crisis took another turn in February 2025 when the Court of Appeal reinstated the APC council officials, while the Adeleke administration proceeded with another local government election on February 22, 2025.
The PDP’s candidates, former party of Mr Adeleke won the election across the state, creating a situation in which two sets of officials claimed legitimacy.
The prolonged battle for control of the councils however turned deadly. Five people were killed during one of the clashes between rival factions to occupy the secretariats, including Aderemi Abbas, the APC-elected chairman of Irewole Local Government Area, who was elected in the October 15, 2022 council election.
That dispute subsequently affected the councils’ finances. The Federal Government withheld local government allocations amid the disagreement over which officials were legally entitled to administer the councils.
In December 2025, the Supreme Court struck out Osun’s suit seeking the release of the withheld funds, although the court also faulted the Federal Government’s seizure of the local government funds.
A new attempt to reclaim the councils
The latest development suggests that the political transition following Mr Adeleke’s re-election could reopen the question of who physically controls the council secretariats.
There had already been attempts by PDP-elected chairmen to resume in several councils in June 2026 following a Federal High Court judgement. At the time, reports indicated that chairmen returned to councils including Ede North, Ede South, Iwo, Boripe and Ila, while resistance was reported in some other areas.
APC officials challenged the move and said they had sought a stay of execution.
The attempt of resumption at Odo Otin therefore comes against an already complicated backdrop in which competing political factions have continued to claim control of the councils.
For residents, the dispute has gone beyond party politics. The uncertainty over who controls the councils has affected the administration of grassroots institutions and contributed to disputes over local government finances and workers’ activities. Reports in 2025 also documented disagreements over the preparation of council budgets and access to allocations.
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