•Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State
The Osun State Government has filed a fresh suit at the Supreme Court against the Attorney-General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), over the alleged unlawful withholding of statutory allocations due to its 30 local government councils since March 2025.
The fresh suit filed on Monday comes months after the state government filed an application to withdraw an earlier one filed against the AGF on the subject matter, reports The PUNCH.
In the originating summons filed on Monday, the state, through its Attorney-General and a legal team led by Mike Ozekhome (SAN), and Musibau Adetunbi (SAN), is asking the apex court to compel the Federal Government to release all seized funds and to stop what it described as “an unconstitutional and arbitrary seizure” of local government revenues.
The Osun AG argued that the AGF had ignored subsisting judgments of the Federal High Court, Osogbo (delivered November 30, 2022) and the Court of Appeal (June 13, 2025), which affirmed the legitimacy of council chairmen and councillors elected on February 22, 2025.
The state said the AGF, in a March 26, 2025 letter, advised that the funds be withheld pending resolution of a “local government crisis.”
But the state government maintained that the appeal court ruling had already settled the matter, nullifying the October 2022 polls conducted under the previous administration.
Among its reliefs, Osun is seeking declarations that the AGF lacks constitutional power to seize local government funds, that his actions contravene valid court judgments, and that all withheld allocations be released directly into the accounts of the duly elected councils. It also wants a perpetual injunction restraining future seizures.
“The seizure, suspension, withholding and/or refusal to pay the allocations and revenues due to the constituent local government councils of the plaintiff state… is unconstitutional, unlawful, wrongful and ultra vires the powers of the defendant,” part of the suit reads.
The state also raised five issues for the Supreme Court’s determination, including whether the AGF is constitutionally bound under Section 287 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) to enforce the rulings of the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal, and whether his March 26, 2025 directive to withhold funds can stand in the face of the appellate judgment.
Simultaneously, Osun has filed another suit at the Federal High Court, Osogbo, challenging the Chief Judge’s decision to transfer an earlier case on the same funds from Osogbo to Abuja for hearing by a vacation judge.
The state warned that proceeding with the Abuja case while the apex court is seized of the matter could result in conflicting judgments.
In an affidavit, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Olufemi Akande Ogundun, described the Federal Government’s actions as “an affront to the rule of law,” insisting that only the Supreme Court can conclusively resolve the constitutional issues. He cited precedents such as A.G. Kano State v. A.G. Federation (2007) and RMAFC v. A.G. Rivers State (2023).
The state also accused the AGF of “self-induced urgency,” noting that he delayed responding to originating processes for over 80 days before filing an affidavit of urgency on August 13, 2025.
It argued that the Chief Judge’s transfer order “casts the lot of the court with the AGF” and risks creating a perception of bias.
No date has yet been fixed for the hearing of the suits.
