•Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State
Osun State governor, Ademola Adeleke, has directed former All Progressives Congress (APC) local council chairmen and councillors to immediately vacate all council secretariats across the state, declaring their continued stay illegal and a clear disregard for court rulings.
This was as he restated his demand for the release of N130 billion statutory allocation to the councils, warning that the continued blockade of the funds was impeding grassroots governance and inflicting hardship on the citizenry, reports The Guardian.
Meanwhile, the Osun chapter of APC said Adeleke’s reported criticism of the imaginary economic blueprint of its governorship candidate, Bola Oyebamiji, was borne out of fear of losing the August 8 gubernatorial poll.
In a state-wide broadcast yesterday, the governor said the officials no longer have any legal authority to occupy the offices, having been removed through valid judicial processes.
He recalled that the Federal High Court sitting in Osogbo nullified the APC-conducted local council elections in November 2022, a decision that was subsequently upheld by the Court of Appeal on February 10 and reaffirmed on June 13, 2025.
Adeleke explained that, in compliance with court orders, the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission (OSIEC) conducted fresh local council elections on February 22, 2025.
According to him, the newly elected chairmen and councillors were duly sworn in the following day and remain the only legitimate occupants of local government offices in the state.
He noted that even the APC officials had acknowledged in their court submissions that their tenure elapsed in October 2025, adding that their recent moves seeking tenure extension only reinforced the fact that they no longer possess a lawful mandate.
The governor accused the former officials of forcefully occupying the secretariats with the alleged support of armed police personnel, reportedly acting on the instructions of former governor, Gboyega Oyetola.
Local governments in Osun have been embroiled in a crisis over control between the Peoples Democratic Party chairmen (PDP) and the reinstated APC council bosses since February 2025, culminating in court litigation.
However, a statement by Adeleke’s spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed, yesterday quoted the governor as demanding the immediate release of N130 billion in council allocations in a statewide broadcast.
He described as illegal the occupation of the council secretariats by the APC local council chairmen for nearly a year, despite judgments of the Federal High Court, Osogbo, in November 2022 and affirmations by the Court of Appeal in February and June 2025 nullifying their elections.
A statement by the Osun APC Director of Media and Information, Kola Olabisi, affirmed that Oyebamiji was ready to restore good governance and restore effective socio-economic development, which he claimed eluded the state since Adeleke’s government came on board.
It read: “Assuming without conceding that our governorship candidate, popularly known as AMBO, has prepared his economic blueprint, he is sufficiently educated, knowledgeable and exposed to adequately explain in it how he intends to correct the copious verifiable wrong policies of the Adeleke government for lack of knowing what to do and when to do it.
“We want to state without mincing words that any time AMBO intends to prepare his economic blueprint, it is going to be a walkover, as it is a familiar terrain to him.”
