The Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved judgment in a suit filed by the Osun State Government seeking to compel the Federal Government to release statutory allocations allegedly withheld from the state’s Local Government Councils (LGs).
A seven-member panel of the apex court, led by Justice Uwani Abba-Aji, reserved its verdict after both the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and the Attorney General of Osun State adopted their respective briefs of argument.
While Chief Akin Olujimi, SAN, represented the Federal Government, Mr. Musibau Adetunbi, SAN, appeared on behalf of the Osun State Government.
The suit, marked SC/CV/775/2025, sought ten reliefs, including a declaration that the AGF is constitutionally bound to enforce and comply with existing court judgments affirming the legality of democratically elected local government councils in Osun State, following the February 22, 2025, council elections.
Osun argued that the AGF had acted in violation of valid judgments of both the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal, delivered on November 30, 2022, and June 13, 2025, respectively, by “unlawfully and unilaterally bequeathing the statutory allocations accruing to the benefit of the 30 LGCs of the plaintiff to its own choice candidates.”
The state further asked the court to declare that the AGF “had no right to withhold, suspend and/or seize the monthly allocations, revenues and/or other funds standing to the credit of the LGCs without lawful justification,” noting that the councils in question were democratically elected.
Osun also sought: “An order restraining the defendant from paying and/or causing to be paid the statutory allocations standing to the credit of the 30 local governments in the plaintiff state to the sacked All Progressive Congress (APC) local government chairmen and councillors pursuant to the nullified local government election of 15th October, 2022, whose election and subsistence in office had been annulled by valid, extant, unchallenged and subsisting decisions of the Federal High Court in Suit No. FHC/OS/CS/103/2022 and that of the Court of Appeal in Appeal No. CA/AK/15/2025, delivered on 30th November, 2022, and 13th June, 2025, respectively.”
The state further urged the apex court to issue: “An order directing the defendant to forthwith release the monthly allocations and revenues due to and standing to the credit of the constituent Local Government Councils of Osun State for all the months they have been unlawfully and unjustifiably withheld by the defendant and pay same directly into the Local Government allocation accounts to be opened in favour of the validly elected Local Government Council officials elected pursuant to the election conducted in the plaintiff state on 22 February, 2025 and sworn in on 23 February, 2025.”
While adopting his arguments, Adetunbi, SAN, informed the court that the AGF, through a letter dated March 26, had directed that the withheld funds be released to APC chairmen and councillors previously sacked by the courts.
“My Lords, even while this matter was pending before this court, the defendant attempted to destroy the res (subject matter) by attempting to pay the money to one of the contending parties. They actually paid through the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, but we were lucky to get an order that stopped the release of the money,” Adetunbi said, urging the court to grant all the reliefs sought.
However, Olujimi, SAN, counsel to the AGF, urged the Supreme Court to dismiss the suit, citing lack of jurisdiction and abuse of court process.
He argued that the dispute was a political tussle between the APC and the PDP over control of local government offices in Osun, not a constitutional matter fit for the Supreme Court’s original jurisdiction.
“The fact of the case is that the APC LG officials have a three-year term of office that is still running and will expire on October 22. However, the state has made it impossible for the officials to function, filing cases up and down to frustrate them from performing their duties. Our position is that this is not a matter for this court. This court can only be approached by activating its original jurisdiction as provided in the Constitution. Moreover, the suit has not disclosed any cause of action. We also contend that the plaintiff not only lacked the locus standi but was also involved in an abuse of the judicial process,” Olujimi stated.
After hearing from both parties, the Justice Abba-Aji-led panel announced that the court would communicate the judgment date in due course.
Earlier in the session, the apex court struck out a related suit, SC/379/2025, which the Osun Government had filed before the AGF issued the directive for the release of the withheld allocations to the APC council officials.
