Osun ALGON raises alarm over alleged plot to divert LG funds

… ALGON statement is worthless — Osun APC

The Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) in Osun State has accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) of masterminding an alleged plot to divert local government (LG) funds through impersonation and illegal bank accounts.

ALGON state chairman, Hon. Sarafadeen Awotunde, speaking at a press conference in Abere on Thursday, alleged that some APC members had fraudulently positioned themselves as signatories to LG accounts with the support of officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to divert the LG funds.

Awotunde claimed that during a recent live broadcast on ARISE TV, APC governorship aspirant and party lawyer, Mr. Kunle Adegoke, admitted that the CBN had opened accounts in the names of local councils in Osun, but with APC loyalists, rather than civil servants, as signatories.

He said, “On the 28th of August, 2025, during a live broadcast of the ARISE TV Morning Show, one of the counsel to the APC in the various cases it has with the state government on the control of Osun State local governments, who is also an APC governorship aspirant in our state, Mr. Kunle Adegoke, popularly known as KRAD, openly admitted that the Central Bank of Nigeria has opened accounts in the names of local government councils in Osun State, and that the signatories to those accounts are not the legitimate civil servants but members of the APC recruited to claim local government civil service positions and offices illegally.

“Let the facts be clear: these so-called APC members are impersonating the statutory civil servants who are the legitimate signatories to all existing accounts of the 30 local governments in Osun State. What Mr Adegoke admitted they have done with the convenience of the CBN is against the law and all extant establishment laws.

“Throughout the democratic world, politicians do not sign government cheques. We, therefore, call on the CBN to quickly close the illegal accounts it has opened for politicians. The intent is clear. It is to divert Osun people’s money to private and political pockets.

“It is worse that the so-called APC chairmen backing them were never legitimate office holders. Their purported election was nullified by the judgment of the Federal High Court sitting in Osogbo on 30th November, 2022, a judgment that was further affirmed by the Court of Appeal in Akure on 13th June, 2025. That is the settled law.

“They remain sacked. For anyone to parade themselves as local government chairmen after these judicial pronouncements is nothing but an act of impersonation, an assault on our courts, and a criminal attempt to hijack public resources.

“It is even more alarming that, according to APC lawyer, Adegoke, officials of the Osogbo branch of the Central Bank of Nigeria accepted the signatures of these APC impostors and opened accounts for them.

“This action is a brazen illegality, a disregard for subsisting court judgments, an infraction against banking and public account rules, and a direct threat to the welfare of the people of Osun State whose funds are at stake. We find it most disturbing that when the statutory civil servants, the Heads of Local Government Administration, Directors of Finance, and other lawful signatories, presented themselves at the Osogbo Branch of the CBN to open these accounts, they were turned away and the doors were shut against them.

“By law and by the reckoning of the Ministry of Local Government, the Local Government Service Commission, and the Auditor-General for Local Governments in Osun State, the only lawful signatories are civil servants, not APC members or members of any other political party.

“The CBN can simply contact the various commercial banks to confirm and authenticate the genuine signatories to the accounts of the 30 Local governments in Osun State. They are civil servants, not political party members.

“We are the authentic ALGON of Osun State, and we remain the only authority recognised by law to administer local government funds. Even at that, we do not sign cheques; civil servants do.

“This unfolding scandal at the CBN constitutes not only impersonation but a deliberate attempt to divert public funds. It is a matter of national importance that must be urgently investigated. The Central Bank of Nigeria, under the leadership of its Governor, must immediately probe the actions of its officials in Osogbo and call the APC lawyer, Mr. Kunle Adegoke, to substantiate his claims on national television.

“To assist this investigation, we have already made available certified true copies of the documents that prove our legitimacy. The official withdrawal of certificates of return earlier issued to the sacked APC chairmen by OSSIEC. The valid certificates of return issued to us, the elected ALGON chairmen of February 22, 2025.

“The judgment of the Federal High Court delivered on 30th November, 2022, and the Court of Appeal judgment delivered on 13th June, 2025, affirming their removal.

“We demand that this matter be addressed urgently to safeguard the resources of the people of Osun State. The funds of our local governments belong to our people, not to impostors and their collaborators.

“As this matter is being investigated, we also urge Nigerians to ask why the office of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and the CBN have singled out Osun State and its Local Governments in the disbursement of allocations through hurriedly opened illegal accounts.

“As we speak here today, all local governments in all the other 35 states have continued to receive their monthly allocations through the State-Local Government Joint Accounts as contained in the 1999 constitution. The AGF and his allies are upholding the rule of power and politics over the rule of law. It is most unfortunate.

“We assure the people of Osun State that ALGON will not relent in defending the mandate freely given to us and in protecting the collective patrimony of our local governments. Justice must prevail.”

In its response, Osun state chapter of the All Progressive Congress (APC) spokesperson, Prince Kola Olabisi, said, ” As a matter of fact, it is not our habit to reply to an unsigned statement which is worth less than an ordinary piece of paper.

“But because a lie persistently repeated could be taken for the truth by the unsuspecting members of the public, we shall endeavour to state unequivocally that the 10th February, 2025 Court of Appeal judgement, which expressly reinstated the All Progressives Congress APC local government council chairmen and councillors are explicit enough for proper comprehension even by non-lawyers.

“In the eyes of the law, the reinstated elected APC local government council chairmen are the legally recognised executive local government bosses in charge of the council affairs in Osun State today.

“The only known and recognised state chairman of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) is Hon Abiodun Idowu, who is duly acknowledged at the headquarters of the body in Abuja.

“The truants behind the composition of the unsigned purported press statement knew the implication, which was the reason they are afraid to put forward the name of their fellow impostors.

“We want to encourage the members of the public to discountenance the hogwash that oozed out from the impersonators who are calling themselves members of the Osun State ALGON, as it is diversionary, lacking merit and frivolous.

“Come to think of it, is the purported leadership of the Osun ALGON not lettered enough to know that the matter is in court and should not be commented upon?

“It is pretty difficult for someone to give what he does not possess, and when the head is rotten, the entire body is in an irredeemable problem.”

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