The Osun State Government has taken the Federal Government to the Supreme Court over what it described as the “unlawful and unconstitutional” withholding of statutory allocations meant for its 30 local government councils since March 2025. The suit, filed on Monday by the state’s legal team led by Senior Advocates of Nigeria, Mike Ozekhome and Musibau Adetunbi, seeks an order compelling the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) to release the funds and stop further seizures of allocations due to democratically elected councils in the state.
According to the originating summons, supported by a 35-paragraph affidavit deposed to by the Commissioner for Finance, Ogungbile Adeola Olusola, Osun argued that the AGF acted in violation of valid court judgments. The state pointed to the Federal High Court ruling of November 2022 and the Court of Appeal judgment of June 2025, both of which affirmed the legitimacy of the February 2025 local government elections and nullified the October 2022 polls conducted under the previous administration. Despite this, the AGF, in a March 26, 2025 letter, advised that allocations be withheld, citing a “local government crisis” in the state.
Osun State is asking the apex court to declare that the AGF has no constitutional powers to suspend or seize local government funds, stressing that Section 7 of the 1999 Constitution guarantees the existence of democratically elected local councils, while Section 287 obliges all authorities to enforce court decisions. The state also wants a perpetual injunction restraining the Federal Government from further interference in its local government finances, warning that the continued withholding of funds poses a threat to grassroots governance.
In a related move, the state also filed a separate case at the Federal High Court, Osogbo, challenging the Chief Judge’s directive to transfer an earlier suit on the allocations from Osogbo to Abuja. The Osun government argued that the transfer order, made in response to an affidavit of urgency filed by the AGF, amounted to “self-induced urgency” and undermined the neutrality of the judiciary. It contended that Lagos, not Abuja, was the designated vacation court for matters from Osogbo, as stated in the Chief Judge’s own notice of May 2025.
With the matter now before the Supreme Court, Osun State has urged the judiciary to halt all proceedings at lower courts to avoid conflicting rulings. The government insists that only the apex court can provide a final determination on the constitutional issues raised. As of press time, the Supreme Court has yet to fix a date for the hearing of the case.
