The Government of Osun State has taken the Federal Government to the Supreme Court over what it described as the unconstitutional and arbitrary seizure of statutory allocations meant for its 30 local government councils.
In an originating summons filed on Tuesday, Osun, through a team of senior lawyers led by Mike Ozekhome (SAN) and Musibau Adetunbi (SAN), asked the apex court to compel the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) to release all withheld allocations dating back to March 2025.
The state government accused the AGF of ignoring subsisting judicial pronouncements, including a Federal High Court judgment (Osogbo Division) of November 30, 2022 and a Court of Appeal ruling of June 13, 2025, both of which affirmed the legitimacy of local government chairmen and councillors elected on February 22, 2025.
The suit, supported by a 35-paragraph affidavit deposed to by Osun’s Commissioner for Finance, Ogungbile Adeola Olusola, seeks multiple declaratory and injunctive orders.
Reliefs Sought by Osun State
The Osun government is specifically asking the Supreme Court to:
1. Compel the AGF to release all withheld monthly allocations due to the 30 local government councils since March 2025.
2. Restrain the AGF from paying statutory allocations to sacked APC chairmen installed after the nullified October 15, 2022 local government elections, which, according to Osun, remain legally invalid.
3. Direct the immediate payment of all due revenues into new allocation accounts to be managed by the validly elected chairmen and councillors sworn in on February 23, 2025.
4. Grant a perpetual injunction preventing the Federal Government from withholding or suspending local government allocations in Osun so long as democratically elected councils are in place.
Background to the Dispute
The tussle stems from Osun’s insistence that only officials elected in the February 2025 local government polls are constitutionally empowered to administer LG funds.
The APC officials, who assumed office through the 2022 elections, had their mandate nullified by the courts a decision left unchallenged at the appellate level.
Despite this, Osun alleges that the AGF continued to withhold funds or attempted to divert them to the sacked officials, prompting the state’s escalation of the matter to the Supreme Court.
FG’s Response
Reacting to the development, the spokesperson to the Attorney General of the Federation, Kamarudeen Ogundele, confirmed the suit and said the AGF’s office would file the appropriate legal papers in response.
“No date has yet been fixed for hearing,” Ogundele added.
The case is expected to test the constitutional guarantees of fiscal federalism and the autonomy of local governments, a recurring flashpoint in Nigeria’s governance structure.
Legal analysts note that the Supreme Court’s eventual ruling could set a precedent for how allocations to LG councils are managed nationwide, especially in states where disputes arise over the legitimacy of local government officials.