August 24, (THEWILL) — The battle between the Federal Government and Osun State government over withheld funds meant for local government councils in the state as a result of arguments by both camps over the constitutionality of the 2024 polls in the state took a new dimension during the past week when the Nigeria Bar Association, NBA, Senior Advocates of Nigeria, Civil Society groups, traditional rulers and indigenous religion worshipers added in for the state government.
For the NBA, which has threatened to sue the government in the centre over lack of jurisdiction, the state government’s exclusive right to control of local government councils must be respected in view of an extant judgement by the Appeal Court.
According to the NBA President, Mazi Afam Osigwe and General Secretary, Mobolaji Ojibara, NBA had, in a stern letter to the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, the Federal Government must immediately release Osun’s local government funds, because the continued withholding of the funds was “unconstitutional, unlawful and a dangerous affront to the rule of law.”
The duo maintained that under the governing laws of the country, the President lacked the powers to suspend or withhold local government funds.
“The withholding of allocations meant for local governments in Osun State amounts to a violation of the Constitution, a disregard for the rule of law and an affront to clear pronouncements of the courts,” the NBA stated, citing the Supreme Court’s landmark judgment in Attorney-General of Lagos State vs. Attorney-General of the Federation (2004).
They stressed that the Federal Government was setting a “dangerous precedent, weakening public confidence in democratic institutions, and emboldening lawlessness at all levels.”
Two other Senior Advocates of Nigeria, SAN, Oba Maduabuji and Musbao Adetunji have supported the NBA’s position and called on the Federal Government to obey the rule of law and release the withheld funds.
According to Maduabuji, “The NBA’s position is the proper position. As long as there are properly elected officials of the LGA in the state, the Federal Government has no right to withhold funds meant for them. The funds are constitutionally guaranteed.” Maduabuji who slammed a suit at the Federal High Court and won it against the new government of Imo State under Governor Hope Uzodinma in 2020 over the dissolution of LGA, said what the Federal Government has done is an aberration.
He explained that it was not Governor Ademola Adeleke but the courts that removed the former LGA chairman elected under an election conducted by the defeated and departing Governor Adegoyega Oyetola in 2022.
“If you continue to starve LGA of funds to run governments at the grassroots then governance will continue to suffer where it matters most,” he said.
According to him, the Federal Government was upholding double standards with regards to issues concerning LGA when it released LGA funds to an appointed administrator in Rivers State. “Releasing funds for an administrator in Rivers State to disburse to LGA is unlawful, allowing him to organise LGA polls is illegal. This is nothing but double standards.”
For Adetunji, SAN, the Federal Government has no legal grounds to withhold the OSUN LGA funds. “It is impunity in operation. By doing that, the Federal Government is failing to allow the rule of law to supersede the rule of politics. This is unfortunate. Mr President has an advantage to act otherwise. This is about the country and not the opposition.”
In his reaction, the President of National Union of Local Government Employees, NULGE, Nathaniel Ogungbangbe, accused the Federal Government of planning to secure a vacation order and hearing in Abuja, despite court rulings already affirming the removal of the APC Council officials.
He said evidence before him showed that the Osun State Government had on May 12, 2025, approached the Federal High Court to restrain the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Accountant General of the Federation from releasing Council funds to the APC officials.
The Court, he noted, ordered parties to maintain the status quo, but attempts were later made to open accounts for the APC chairmen until the Court of Appeal intervened on June 13, 2025.
Speaking further on the alleged manipulation, Ogungbangbe described the latest move as “a plot to achieve through the backdoor what the Appeal Court had already denied,”, insisting that the allocations belong to the grassroots and must be preserved for the people of Osun State.
This stalemate over the LGA crisis in Osun dates back to October 2022 when former Governor Oyetola conducted controversial elections that were later nullified by the Federal High Court.
The following legal battle which dragged on for some time ended with the Court of Appeal’s June 13, 2025 judgment, which upheld the February 2025 polls won by the PDP.
Despite these developments, the NBA revealed that federal authorities, acting on a March 26, 2025 advisory, continued to recognize the sacked APC officials and allegedly instructed the Ministry of Finance to withhold allocations until October 2025.
The NBA has threatened that if the Federal Government continues to stall over the funds, its National Litigation Committee and Section on Public Interest and Development Law may head to court if dialogue fails.
On the strength of stakeholders’ growing support, Governor Ademola Adeleke has called on the Federal Government to release statutory allocations due to local governments in the state.
“We are vindicated on all fronts on our rightful claim on the local government crisis,” the governor said in a statement on Wednesday. “I must particularly commend the NBA leadership for setting up a committee to investigate the Osun local government question and for demonstrating the rare courage to release the report which declared that there is no legal basis for the continuous withholding of Osun local government allocations,” the governor stated, adding that, “After their sack in 2022, the APC chairmen filed for stay of execution which the court denied. I was not in any way responsible for their sack. The NBA’s finding has authenticated this reality.”
Adeleke stressed that the fresh elections held on February 22, 2025, were conducted strictly in line with judicial pronouncements and produced 30 Peoples Democratic Party council chairmen and their councillors, who have since been recognised by the Court of Appeal.
“The action of the NBA on the Osun local government matters has cleared all doubts. By law, today, PDP elected chairmen and councillors are the rightful occupants of the Osun local government leadership,” Adeleke said. “There is, therefore, no legal or constitutional basis for the withholding of Osun LG allocations.”
“I again call on the Federal Government to release Osun seized allocations in line with the law and demands of the constitution. We will continue to deploy due process and rule of law in our struggle for justice on this matter,” he added.
In a reaction, the Osun APC has called on the NBA to rethink its position, stating that it should not turn itself into a court of law.
State Chairman, Tajudeen Lawal, described the NBA’s intervention as disappointing.
“It is disheartening, worrisome and shameful that the NBA, a professional body that has a burden of integrity hanging on its neck … could have the shameless audacity to poke its nose in a matter that doesn’t concern it in Osun State,” he said, adding that, “In the first instance, the NBA is not a party to the suit. They have no locus to review it. The NBA is not the Supreme Court of Nigeria. They have no jurisdiction to review or even interpret the judgement of the Court of Appeal … There is nothing in law called ‘tacit recognition’ which the NBA has, disingenuously, invented to justify its pecuniary consideration.”
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