The Federal Government (FG) has withheld the February, March, and April 2025 allocations for Osun State’s local government councils due to a political and legal dispute over the legitimacy of local government leadership.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) argues that only “democratically elected” and “judicially certified” officials, specifically APC chairmen elected in October 2022, should receive the funds, citing a February 10, 2025, Court of Appeal ruling that allegedly reinstated these chairmen after they were sacked in 2022.
Conversely, the Osun State Government, led by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Governor Ademola Adeleke, claims a state High Court ruling confirmed vacancies in local government positions, justifying the February 22, 2025, elections won by the PDP.
The FG’s decision to withhold the allocations appears to stem from this unresolved conflict over which group—APC or PDP officials—legitimately controls the local governments, pending further judicial clarification.
The Osun State Government has filed a lawsuit against the Federal Government at the Supreme Court, alleging that the Federal Government withheld the monthly allocations for local government councils in Osun State for February, March, and April 2025.
The suit, dated April 23, 2025, and filed by Musibau Adetunbi, SAN, on behalf of the Osun State Attorney General, names the Attorney General of the Federation as the defendant.
Osun State is seeking a court order to compel the release of the withheld funds and to restrain the Federal Government from further withholding or seizing local government allocations.
The state’s Finance Commissioner emphasized in an affidavit of urgency, sworn on April 24, 2025, that the continuous seizure of these funds is causing significant hardship and could cripple local government functions and, by extension, state governance.
The status of the May 2025 allocation remains undetermined.
This action follows a broader political and legal dispute over local government control in Osun State, involving tensions between the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC).