Withheld allocation: S’Court reserves judgment in Osun govt’s case

By Ikechukwu Nnochiri, Abuja

The Supreme Court, on Tuesday, reserved for judgement a suit seeking to compel the Federal Government to release all the allocations belonging to Local Government Councils, LGCs, in Osun State, which it seized.

A seven-member panel of the court, led by Justice Uwani Abba-Aji, okayed the matter for judgement after both the Attorney General of the Federation and the Attorney General of Osun State, through their respective counsel, adopted their briefs of argument.

While a former AGF, Chief Akin Olujimi, SAN, appeared for FG, the Osun State government was represented by Mr Musibau Adetunbi, SAN.

Osun State, in the suit marked SC/CV/775/2025, sought 10 reliefs from the court, among which included a declaration that the AGF, who was cited as the sole defendant, is constitutionally obligated to enforce and comply with court decisions that affirmed the existence of democratically elected LGCs in Osun, followingan election that was conducted in the state on February 22, 2025.

The state prayed the court to declare that the AGF cannot act arbitrarily and contrary to the subsisting and binding decisions of both the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal, delivered on November 30, 2022, in Suit No. FHC/OS/CS/103/2022 and on June 13, 2025, in Appeal No. CA/AK/15/2025, 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, in total contravention of the extant decisions of the courts aforementioned.”

It further sought a declaration 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, especially in view of the fact that the state already had in place democratically elected LGCs.

“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.”

“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.

“An order directing the defendant to forthwith pay the allocation, revenues and other funds accruing and due to the Local Government Councils of the plaintiff state to the validly elected Local Government Council officials elected pursuant to the election conducted in the plaintiff state on 22nd February, 2025 and sworn in on 23rd February, 2025.

As well as: “An order of perpetual injunction restraining the defendant from further withholding, suspending and/or seizing the monthly allocations, revenues and/or funds standing to the credit of the constituent Local Government Councils of the plaintiff state for as long as the plaintiff state has in place democratically elected Local Government Councils in its state.”

While adopting his processes on Tuesday, counsel to the state told the Supreme Court that the AGF had, in a letter dated March 26, directed that the withheld allocations should be released to APC chairmen and councillors that were already sacked from office by a court judgement.

He said, “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,” Osun state’s lawyer, Adetunbi, SAN, added as he urged the court to grant all the reliefs.

However, counsel to the AGF, Olujimi, SAN, drew the attention of the court to a preliminary objection he filed to challenge the competence of the suit.

Seeking the dismissal of the suit, the AGF argued that the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court was not properly invoked, insisting that at the centre of the action was a contention between the APC and PDP over who should occupy LG positions in Osun state.

“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, SAN, added.

After it had listened to both sides, the Justice Abba-Aji-led panel said it would communicate the judgement date to all the parties.

Earlier, the court struck out another suit marked SC/379/2025, which Osun State said it filed before the AGF gave the directive for the withheld funds to be released to the APC LG chairmen and councillors.

The post Withheld allocation: S’Court reserves judgment in Osun govt’s case appeared first on Vanguard News.