LG Allocation: Osun Govt Lying Over Withheld Funds – APC
The Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has described as untrue claims by the Osun State Government that President Bola Tinubu led federal government is deliberately holding funds accruing to local councils in the state.
The party also noted that the stance of Governor Ademola Adeleke that the June 13, 2025 judgement legalised the February 22, 2025 local government election in the state is far from the truth.
APC, while responding to an earlier statement signed by Oluomo Kolapo Alimi, Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, noted that the true situation is that the February 10, 2025 Court of Appeal judgement had validated the October 15, 2020 council poll, which the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is acting in line with.
Alimi had said that the continued withholding of the allocation has led to hardship for people in grassroots communities across the state.
The government also affirmed that there is no legal or political basis for withholding the allocations, asserting that “before the law today, the elected chairmen and councillors that were produced based on the local Government elections of 22nd February, 2025, are the official leadership of the local governments in Osun state”.
But in his response, Osun APC’s spokesperson, Kola Olabisi noted that, “Contrary to the misinformation contained in the press statement of the state commissioner for information, Mr Kolapo Alimi, today, that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is withholding the allocations of the local government councils, we would like to painstakingly explain to the public that such insinuation is far from the truth of the matter as no any agency of the Federal Government is withholding the local government allocations.
“What is transpiring is that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is acting in line with the Court of Appeal judgement of the 10th of February, 2025 which reinstated the APC local government council chairmen and councillors.
“It is known to all and sundry that the defeated parties in the case failed to appeal the 10th of February, 2025 judgement because they knew they lacked sufficient grounds to do so.
“The CBN, whose hallmark is the rules of law, has been processing the payment of the allocations to the rightful local government council chairmen and councillors and the process that is close to conclusion in the due course.
“The misinformation of the people by the Osun State commissioner for information was obviously to misinform the members of the public that the allocations should have been paid to Governor Ademola Adeleke who is the sponsor of the needless lingering six-month-old strike embarked upon by the glaringly partisan state chapter of the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) in unfair and unethical solidarity with the state government.
“It is this same Governor Ademola who has the history of victimising the monarchs in the state ever before the issue of the allocations of the local government councils cropped up that is now falsely putting up the role of the defender of the traditional rulers in the state.
“The fact of the development is that Senator Adeleke is not a serious governor as a serious governor would not be away from his state for the planning of his nephew’s wedding ceremony for four weeks running.
“If there’s anyone that grounds the wheel of administration in the state, it is Governor Adeleke who sacked 1,500 teachers, hundreds of health workers and 20,000 O’YES Corp members employed by his predecessor without making a deserving replacement for them.
“In addition, the same Governor Ademola Adeleke through his Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice also asked, by a pending suit, the Federal High Court to direct the CBN to refuse to pay the Chairmen and Councilors the funds and all these facts are in the public domain.
“It is expected that the state commissioner for information would have a deeper understanding of the issues surrounding the local government administration in Nigeria with special reference to the financial autonomy granted to the local governments in Nigeria through a judgment of the Supreme Court in July, 2024.
“It is in the public domain that the Governor Adeleke-led administration is owing the local government councils in the state a total sum of N84 billion, being the amount of the allocations it illegally withdrew contrary to the judgment of the Supreme Court which gives an unfettered autonomy to the local government council areas in Nigeria.
“It is the duty of the people of the state to query Governor Adeleke how his office squandered N3.1 billion on travellings in the first half of this year without having anything to show for it.
“It is not too far to forget how Governor Adeleke’s ploy to rubbish the judiciary in the state through his failed efforts to sack the state Chief Judge were vehemently rebuffed.
“Since it is obvious that Governor Adeleke has reached a dead end in his administrative capacity, it will be glorious for him to throw in the towel as political history will note it in indelible ink that his time is not only ruinous but a monumental catastrophe to the people of the state,” Osun APC concluded.
Sodiq Yusuf is a trained media practitioner and journalist with considerable years of experience in print, broadcast, and digital journalism. His interests cover a wide range of causes in politics, governance, sports, community development, and good governance.
