The Osun State Government has returned to the Supreme Court, accusing the Federal Government of unlawfully withholding statutory allocations meant for its 30 local government councils since March 2025.
The fresh suit, filed on Monday, comes months after the state withdrew an earlier case on the same matter.
This time, Osun insists the Attorney-General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), ignored valid court rulings that affirmed the legitimacy of the elected council officials.
“The seizure, suspension, withholding and/or refusal to pay the allocations and revenues due to the constituent local government councils of the Plaintiff State… is unconstitutional, unlawful, wrongful and ultra vires the powers of the Defendant,” the originating summons reads.
Court Rulings Ignored, Osun Seeks Justice
The state is represented by its Attorney-General, alongside senior lawyers Mike Ozekhome (SAN) and Musibau Adetunbi (SAN).
They are asking the apex court to compel the Federal Government to release all withheld funds and stop what they call “an unconstitutional and arbitrary seizure” of local government revenues.
The AGF had, in a letter dated March 26, 2025, advised that allocations be withheld due to a “local government crisis.”
But Osun argues that the crisis was resolved by two court judgments: one from the Federal High Court in Osogbo (November 30, 2022), and another from the Court of Appeal (June 13, 2025).
Both rulings nullified the October 2022 local government elections conducted by the previous administration and upheld the legitimacy of the February 2025 polls.
Osun is asking the Supreme Court to declare that the AGF has no constitutional power to withhold local government funds and that his actions violate Section 287 of the 1999 Constitution.
The state also wants a perpetual injunction to prevent future seizures.
Transfer to Abuja Raises Eyebrows
In a separate affidavit, Olufemi Akande Ogundun, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, described the Federal Government’s actions as “an affront to the rule of law.”
He said only the Supreme Court can resolve the constitutional questions, citing past cases like A.G. Kano State v. A.G. Federation (2007) and RMAFC v. A.G. Rivers State (2023).
Osun also challenged the Chief Judge’s decision to transfer a related case from the Federal High Court in Osogbo to Abuja for hearing by a vacation judge.
The state warned that this move could lead to conflicting judgments and undermine the integrity of the judicial process.
“The transfer of the matter to Abuja casts the lot of the court with the AGF,” Ogundun said, accusing the AGF of “self-induced urgency” after delaying for over 80 days before filing an affidavit of urgency on August 13, 2025.
Omisore Defends the President
Meanwhile, former National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Iyiola Omisore, has absolved President Bola Tinubu of any blame regarding the lingering crisis over withheld local government funds in Osun State.
Omisore said the issue should not be politicised, stressing that the problem was between the state government and the local government workers.
He said, “This thing is not concerned with the general election. It’s not concerned with the president at all. It has to do with local government and the state. So don’t blame the president…And don’t blame the APC. Put your blame on the PDP who has not allowed them to work or who abducted NULGE.”
He explained that the “The major issue in our state today, which nobody has mentioned, is NULGE. Local government staff and employees have been on strike or have been abducted since February, that’s seven months now. That’s the crucial matter”.
He criticised stakeholders and senior lawyers who, according to him, failed to focus on the real issue.
“Anybody that wants to get involved in Osun State’s local government reserve fund, it’s not about the president or Governor Adeleke; it’s about NULGE, the staff who ran away. I’ve not seen a situation where workers have left work for the past seven months,” Omisore argued.
“So basically, who do you give this money to? Do you give this money to the elected officers or to non-officials who are not at work? It comes several times back as a government sign; no, no, you are not available to sign,” he added.
Situation Should Not Be Politicized
Omisore also rejected claims that President Tinubu was withholding the funds to influence political realignments in Osun State.
The former APC national secretary urged stakeholders, including the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and senior lawyers, to “address the issue holistically” instead of misrepresenting facts, stressing that the matter was primarily administrative and not political.
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