Time for FG to release Osun LG funds

FOR some time now, Osun State has been in the news for the wrong reasons, embroiled in a protracted crisis over the control of its local government councils. At the heart of the matter is the Federal Government’s continued seizure of the monthly statutory allocations due to the state’s local governments. This seizure, which began in February 2025, followed a Court of Appeal’s judgment on February 10, which dismissed the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) objection to the October 2022 local government elections held during the administration of Governor Gboyega Oyetola. The court held that the PDP’s suit, which had earlier succeeded at the Federal High Court, was incompetent because it was filed before the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission (OSIEC) issued the election notice. The All Progressives Congress (APC) interpreted the appellate court’s ruling as a reinstatement of its chairmen and councillors. When the sacked officials attempted to resume office, violence erupted, tragically resulting in the loss of lives.

This crisis has a history. In the controversial October 2022 elections, APC candidates emerged winners across the state, as other parties boycotted the process, citing legal concerns over the shortened notice period. Apart from the PDP’s legal challenge, the Action Peoples Party (APP) also filed a separate suit, arguing that the elections violated the provisions of the Electoral Act. In November 2022, the Federal High Court in Osogbo nullified the elections, sacking all the elected officials. The APC appealed the ruling in the APP case but failed to prosecute the matter diligently. It filed no processes, including the record of proceedings. After two years of inactivity, the Court of Appeal struck out the case, declaring the APC’s inaction as abandonment. Relying on the standing judgment, and a state high court order, the administration of Governor Ademola Adeleke conducted fresh local government elections in February this year.

In a bid to reopen the APP case, the APC filed for a relisting of its abandoned appeal. But in a unanimous judgment delivered on June 13, 2025, Justice Peter Obiorah dismissed the application as lacking merit. He aptly described the APC’s delay as a “self-inflicted injury,” invoking the legal maxim volenti non fit injuria (no one can complain of harm they willingly brought upon themselves). Justice Obiorah further noted that a party with a known three-year tenure could not reasonably sleep on its rights for two years. He held that with no subsisting appeal against the Federal High Court’s 2022 judgment, that ruling stands as the binding legal position on the status of local government leadership in Osun State. The verdict is clear.

Justice Oyebisi Omoyele, in a concurring judgment, noted that the February 10, 2025 judgment of the same Court of Appeal dismissing an almost identical appeal, along with the fresh elections held on February 22, had rendered the relisting application moot. Justice Omoyele said: “Critically, this court has earlier delivered judgment on the 10th of February, 2025 in appeal number CA/AK/207/2002 involving basically the same parties and addressing substantially the same issue. The said appeal has been dismissed. What is more, a fresh local government election conducted on the 22nd of February, 2025, and the swearing-in of the new chairmen and councillors have overtaken the sub-stratum of the main issue. Relisting the appeal at this time will serve no practical purpose. That means it will become an academic exercise.”

ALSO READ FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE: Why Tinubu is on state visit to Saint Lucia – Presidency

Despite these clear judicial pronouncements, the Federal Government has acted in defiance of the law. Rather than obeying the June 13, 2025 judgment, the Attorney General of the Federation, Chief Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), insisted on recognising the previously sacked APC officials, claiming that the February 10 judgment had reinstated them. Consequently, the Federal Government began moves to release local government funds to these deposed officials. In a deeply controversial move, the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, via a letter dated June 10, 2025 and signed by one Okolie Rita, directed that any two of the chairman, treasurer, or director of finance/personnel in each local government in Osun should apply to open accounts with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for the local governments. This directive provoked outrage, as it bypasses the legal and statutory frameworks for financial administration at the local level. Local government chairmen, being politicians, are not signatories to government accounts; the law mandates only designated career officers for such roles.

Joining the chorus of condemnation, the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), through its President General, Comrade Aliyu Haruna Kankara, decried this blatant disregard for the July 14, 2024 Supreme Court ruling affirming financial autonomy for local governments. He accused the CBN of violating the directive on direct allocation payments to local councils, reminding all concerned that the lawful signatories remain the Directors of Finance and Supplies and Directors of Administration and General Services, with countersignatures from the LG chairmen and Heads of Local Government Administration (HLAs). Kankara appealed directly to President Bola Tinubu, urging him to resist “this affront on the law” and reject attempts to undermine the legacy he built as governor of Lagos State in defending local government autonomy.

The situation in Osun is as dangerous as it is unacceptable. The fact that the Federal Government promptly complied with a Supreme Court judgment nullifying local government elections in Rivers State but has chosen to ignore a binding judgment in Osun raises troubling questions about selective justice and the abuse of federal power. It gives the impression of partisanship and deepens public distrust in the rule of law. Disobedience to court judgments undermines judicial authority and threatens the foundations of democracy. To withhold the entitlements of duly elected local governments without a court order is not only illegal, it is dangerous. It robs Osun’s local government workers, including teachers, of their salaries and undermines development at the grassroots.

The Supreme Court’s landmark ruling on LG financial autonomy was meant to liberate local governments from state captivity, not transfer the power to capture them to the Federal Government. If Abuja begins to overrule validly constituted governments at subnational levels simply because it can, then Nigeria’s federalism is in peril. The Federal Government’s handling of the Osun situation, flouting judicial decisions, generating needless political tension, and setting a dangerous precedent, is troubling. The perception that it engineered this crisis using federal might for partisan gain is spreading. The use of state power to bypass legal outcomes threatens the very integrity of Nigeria’s constitutional order.

The Federal Government, particularly the office of the Attorney General of the Federation and the Central Bank of Nigeria, have not done well in this case. Can funds meant for government operations really be handed over to unauthorised private individuals housed in a non-government building? Are judicial rulings only respected when they benefit the ruling party? These are questions that must be answered with action, not silence.

We align with NULGE in calling on the Federal Government to immediately release Osun’s local government funds through the proper legal channels, as is being done for other states. The people of Osun State deserve peace, and local government workers and teachers deserve their pay. More importantly, Nigeria deserves a government that obeys the law. The Federal Government will lose nothing by complying with the Court of Appeal’s judgment affirming the tenure of those elected in the February 2025 Osun local government election. What it will gain, however, is the moral authority of doing what is right.