SUPREME COURT STRIKES OUT OSUN GOVT'S RELIEFS ON LG ALLOCATIONS, AFFIRMS APC CHAIRMEN AS LAWFUL OFFICIALS

By Rasheed Opakunle
The Supreme Court today struck out in its entirety the reliefs sought by the Osun State Government in its suit over the control of statutory local government allocations, dealing a crushing legal blow to the Ademola Adeleke administration and effectively confirming that the APC-led chairmen and councillors reinstated by the Court of Appeal on February 10, 2025 remain the only legally recognised local government officials in the state.

The suit, marked SC/CV/775/2025, was instituted by the Osun State Government against the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) as the sole defendant. At the heart of the case was the government’s bid to divert local government allocations away from the reinstated APC officials and pay the funds into accounts administered by what critics have described as “sit-at-home clowns” purportedly produced through a phantom local government election conducted on February 25, 2025.

In the suit, Osun State sought 10 separate reliefs, among which was a declaration that the AGF was constitutionally bound to enforce and comply with court decisions allegedly affirming the existence of democratically elected local government councils arising from the state’s February 2025 local government election.

The state further prayed the Supreme Court to declare that the AGF could not act arbitrarily or contrary to earlier decisions of the Federal High Court delivered on November 30, 2022 and the Court of Appeal delivered on June 13, 2025, by allegedly releasing statutory allocations of the 30 local governments to candidates not chosen by the state government.

Osun State also sought a declaration that the AGF had no right to withhold, suspend or seize local government allocations, revenues and funds standing to the credit of the local governments, insisting that it already had in place “democratically elected” councils arising from its own February 2025 exercise.

Among the most controversial reliefs were the prayers asking the Supreme Court to: Restrain the AGF from paying statutory allocations to the APC local government chairmen and councillors elected in the October 15, 2022 election and reinstated by the Court of Appeal; compel the AGF to release all withheld allocations directly into new local government accounts to be opened for officials produced by the February 25, 2025 election and sworn in on February 23, 2025; issue a perpetual injunction barring the AGF from releasing local government funds to any officials other than those produced by the state government’s February 2025 election.

In its judgment delivered today, the Supreme Court struck out all the reliefs sought by the Osun State Government, holding that the suit was incompetent and incapable of overriding a valid and subsisting judgment of the Court of Appeal.

By rejecting the state government’s request that local government allocations be paid into accounts controlled by officials produced from the disputed February 2025 election, the apex court insisted that statutory allocations must only be paid to duly elected and legally recognised local government officials.

In practical terms, the Supreme Court’s decision means that the APC-led chairmen and councillors reinstated by the Court of Appeal on February 10, 2025 remain the lawful and constitutionally recognised local government officials in Osun State.

By knocking out the reliefs of the state government, the apex court has formally collapsed the legal foundation upon which the Osun PDP government had hoped to sustain its parallel local government structure and divert council funds.

The ruling is being widely celebrated as a major legal and political victory for the Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), whose reinstated chairmen and councillors now enjoy full constitutional recognition and access to statutory allocations.

In the same breath, the judgment represents a huge judicial and political setback for the Osun State Government and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), whose attempt to validate what critics describe as a phantom local government election and impose unelected officials on the councils has now failed decisively at the highest court in the land.

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