Osun State Governor, Senator Ademola Adeleke has appealed President Bola Tinubu to intervene and order the release of the state’s local councils’ allocatlions.
In February 2025, the state electoral commission conducted elections in the 30 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state.
The exercise was marred by violence, disputes, and legal battles as the sacked LGA chairpersons, elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), sought to reclaim their seats, citing a court judgement.
The Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi advised Adeleke to direct the state electoral commission to halt the process.
Fagbemi said that the ousted LGA chairpersons must be reinstated since the Court of Appeal had dismissed the judgement of the lower court that sacked them.
But Adeleke proceeded with the polls. The APC and Labour Party withdrew from the elections, while the Peoples Democratic Party, of which Adeleke was then a member, won the poll.
The APC would later ask the Federal Government to withhold the allocations, arguing that the LG election was unlawful.
Last month, the Supreme Court dismissed the suit filed by the state Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, seeking to compel Fagbemi to release and pay all withheld monthly allocations and revenues directly into the accounts of the local councils, led by officials elected in February 2025.
The apex court held that the state Attorney-General lacks the legal authority to institute the case on behalf of the 30 LGAs.
However, the Supreme Court rejected the AGF’s contempt allegations against the state AG, noting that, instead, it was the AGF who committed contempt by withholding the funds.
In a state broadcast on Monday, Adeleke accused the immediate former governor of the state, Mr. Adegboyega Oyetola of backing the state LG chairpersons, who were sacked by the court, to remain in office.
Adeleke said that, even if the court had not removed the council chairmen and councillors elected on the APC platform, their tenure expired in October 2025, having completed four years in office.
‘Despite these incontrovertible legal facts, they have continued to occupy the local government secretariats by brute force, with police protection allegedly acting on the instructions of former governor Gboyega Oyetola’, Adeleke alleged.
Adeleke said that the local council allocations are the primary source of remuneration for primary school teachers, nurses, and other health workers at the 332 health care centres in the state, as well as for local government workers, traditional councils, and retirees.
‘Imagine the level of suffering these people who depend on local government statutory allocations for the payment of their salaries would have gone through if my government had not stepped in to borrow from the state government to pay the salaries of these workers over the last almost 12 months, with the exception of traditional council salaries’ he said.
