LG Allocation: No State Can Receive LG Funds, FG Tells Supreme Court
- Asks Court to Dismiss Osun’s Suit
Following a heated legal faceoff, the federal government has insisted that no state, including Osun, has the constitutional authority to control, disburse, or manage statutory allocations meant for local government councils.
The FG is urging the Supreme Court to enforce its earlier ruling affirming that only democratically elected local government councils are entitled to receive funds directly from the Federation Account not through any intermediary, including state governments.
In its response to a suit filed by the Osun State Government seeking the release of withheld allocations, the Federal Government described the case as baseless and misleading.
It argued that Osun has no legal standing to demand the funds on behalf of the local governments and has instead expressed intentions to use the allocations for state-managed education and healthcare, a move it says contravenes an existing Supreme Court judgment.
The Federal Government’s position is contained in an affidavit deposed to by the Special Assistant to the President (Federal Ministry of Justice), Taiye Hussain Oloyede, in response to Suit No: SC/CV/379/2025 filed by Osun State against the Federal Government.
The affidavit reads in part: “I, Taiye Hussain Oloyede, Nigerian, Special Assistant to the President attached to the Federal Ministry of Justice Central Area, Abuja do make oath and say as follows:
“I am a Special Assistant to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR and I am attached to the office of the Minister of Justice.
“By virtue of that fact, I know the facts of this case and I have the authority of the defendant and Chief Akin Olujinmi, CON, SAN, lead counsel to the defendant, to swear to this counter-affidavit.
“I have read the affidavit in support of the Originating Summons 9: the plaintiff and admit paragraphs 3, 4, 5 and 9 of the affidavit.
Paragraphs 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 25, 24, 24.2G, 27, 28, 29 and 30 of the affidavit of the plaintiff are not true.”
He further referenced the Supreme Court judgment in Attorney General of the Federation vs. Attorney General of Abia State & Ors., SC/CV/343/2024, delivered on July 11, 2024, which granted several declarations and orders establishing the independence of local government allocations from state interference.
“I know that effectuating direct payment of allocation to local governments in states requires no logistics that the Minister of Finance should comply with beyond paying the allocation due to the accounts of the local governments.
“The local governments are the ones to forward their account particulars to the Minister of Finance.
“I know as a fact that it is those elected in the local government election conducted by the immediate past government of Osun State on the platform of All Progressives Congress that are running the affairs of the local governments, and their tenure will expire at the end of October, 2025.”
According to the affidavit, Osun State failed to indicate in its filing that the councils had submitted their account details to the finance ministry or that it had their consent to sue on their behalf.
“The plaintiff has even indicated in its affidavit that it will use the local governments’ allocation to finance health care system and education contrary to the judgment of this Court quoted above barring state governments including the plaintiff from spending local government money on behalf of the local governments.”
He said the Court of Appeal had set aside the Federal High Court ruling that voided the previous Blazers Center Getting Major Trade Interest From Warriors: Report local government elections conducted by the past Osun administration.
“That on the same 22nd May, 2025, the Minister of Finance told Chief Akin Olujinmi, CON, SAN, in my presence at about 3.15 pm… that the Federation has never withheld the funds due to Osun State or the local governments therein,” Oloyede added.
A written address filed by Chief Akin Olujinmi (SAN), leading seven other counsel for the Federal Government, described the Osun suit as “deceitful” and “shocking.”
It said: “The complaint of the plaintiff in this case is that the statutory allocation due to the 30 Local air jordan 4 mars blackmon 2024 Government Councils of Osun State for the month of March 2025 was not paid to the plaintiff by the Minister of Finance.”
The Federal Government emphasized that the Supreme Court had already ruled that such funds must be paid directly to local councils, not through the state. It accused Osun of attempting to override that judgment.
“It is indeed shocking to find the plaintiff State claiming at paragraphs 15 and 16 of its affidavit that notwithstanding the clear decision of the Supreme Court… it had collected such allocations from July 2024 to February 2025 in disobedience to the judgment.”
The FG argued that Osun had no legal authority to sue on behalf of the councils and had not disclosed any legitimate dispute with the Federal Government to warrant invoking the Supreme Court’s original jurisdiction.
It said, “The alleged failure air jordan 1 low og florida gators pe of a functionary of the Federal Government… does not qualify as a dispute capable of triggering the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.”
According to the FG, the proper party to bring any grievance about unpaid allocations is the local government councils themselves — not the state government.
“We submit, nobody has a right to disobey the judgment of the court and still come back to the same court… and ask the court to make fresh 010 - nike air brown orange tan beige shoes free | FZ8132 - cheap lebron 10 shoes size 13 orders on its behalf to continue to disobey the judgment of the court,” it said.
The FG concluded by urging the court to dismiss the case and order the Osun government to return all allocations it had collected between July 2024 and February 2025 for redistribution directly to the local governments.
Meanwhile, the Osun State Government, in its originating summons, is asking the Supreme Court to compel the Federal Government to release the allocations it says have been withheld from its local government councils.
It also seeks a declaration that the continued withholding of the funds is unconstitutional, illegal, and threatens the operations and governance of the local government system in the state.
The state’s Commissioner for Finance, Ogungbile Adeola Olusola, said in a sworn affidavit: “If the defendant is not urgently restrained from further withholding…the local government councils would not be able to function and perform their constitutional obligations.
“The continuous seizure…would cripple the governance and subsistence of the local government councils and, by extension, the governance of the state itself.”
Hafsoh Isiaq is a graduate of Linguistics. An avid writer committed to creative, high-quality research and news reportage. She has considerable experience in writing and reporting across a variety of platforms including print and online.
