The Osun State Government has said it has been using funds initially meant for its various developmental projects to pay different categories of workers who draw salaries from the Local Government allocation.
The Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Oluwole Jimi-Bada, has sued the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, at the Supreme Court over the Federal Government’s withholding of Local Government allocations.
Report indicates that the PDP and APC in the state have been battling for control of the local councils since the Akure Appeal Court judgment on the sacked chairmen and councillors elected on October 12, 2022.
The APC elected chairmen said the court had reinstated them and returned to the council secretariats across the state.
The state government and the PDP, however, held that the court did not rule in APC’s favour, as the Osun State Independent State Electoral Commission conducted another election on February 21, 2025, where a new set of LG officials emerged.
In the crisis that followed, six people, including the reinstated council chairman of Irewole Local Government Area, Remi Abbas, were confirmed killed.
Speaking on how the State government has been managing the situation during a chat with newsmen on Sunday, the Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Kolapo Alimi, said the government was expecting a speedy resolution of the impasse through the court.
“It is quite unfortunate that our system is still undergoing this kind of scenario. It happened to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu when he was the governor, due to the creation of local government.
“The Lagos State allocations were not released for some time and nobody envisaged that such a thing would happen under the watch of President Tinubu.
“We didn’t want to escalate issues because we know that the judiciary will soon resolve it,” he said.
The commissioner said the local government is responsible for the payment of salaries and pensions of local government staff, primary school teachers, and retirees, and traditional allowances, among others.
He said, “So if anybody is holding on to local government allocations, the effect of it is that that category of people will not get their salaries and allowances.
“It was deliberate, and we consider it as an act of wickedness, but when it happened, our government has been rallying around to ensure that all these categories of people do not suffer.”
The Osun APC, however, said no allocation was seized, adding that the Federal Government was merely obeying the court which ruled on the case instituted by the LG officials who were prevented from serving out their tenure of office.
The party’s spokesperson, Mr Kola Olabisi, said the refusal of Governor Ademola Adeleke’s administration to respect the court decision was responsible for the impasse.
“The Osun State Government is the architect of its own misfortune. It is the refusal to honour the Court of Appeal judgment which reinstated the council chairmen that is causing the crisis,” he said.
The APC spokesman said, “The Federal Government does not want to breach the law.
“You know, once a judgment is given and not challenged, it becomes the law.
“When the government knew it had a genuine reason to contest the February 10 judgment, why didn’t it take the more proper route by appealing to the Supreme Court?
“It is only an attention-seeking strategy and more so, there is a need for them to do that so that they can keep their members intact and give them false hope.”
The APC spokesman denied the claim that the Federal Government was seizing the allocation.
The state Chairman of the Trade Union Congress, Abimbola Fasasi, said the non-release of local government funds was having negative impacts on the smooth running of the councils.
He also lamented the attendant hardship, not just on the local government workers but also on the state.”
Fasasi, in an interview with newsmen, said, “Thank God for the kind of governor that we have in the state presently, who’s ready to serve selflessly and committed to the welfare of workers and the entire citizens.
“He is doing everything possible to reduce the effects of the withheld funds by ensuring continuous payments of our members at the grassroots through the IGR and prudent spending.”
The Punch
