•As NULGE tasks Tinubu, others to obey latest Appeal Court judgment
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr Musibau Adetunbi, has raised the alarm over what he described as an unconstitutional decision by some Federal Government officials to divert local government funds in Osun State for the use of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Adetunbi, who leads the legal team of the state in the various legal battles besetting the administration and control of local government councils in Osun State between the ruling PDP and the APC, issued a statement on Thursday in Ibadan calling for sanity and respect for the rule of law on the vexed issues.
He described as “politically motivated and unlawful” a recent directive by the Accountant-General of the Federation to the Central Bank of Nigeria to (CBN) to send statutory allocations of the local government councils to the APC state secretariat in Osogbo instead of the official ministry of local governments at the Osun State government secretariat at Abere, Osogbo.
He also asked the APC to stop using the levers of the power it has at the federal level to subvert the rule of law and twist clear judgments of the Court of Appeal which he said the APC lost.
The Senior Advocate explained in the statement, “it must be noted that even in the first judgment of the Court of Appeal which was delivered on February 10, 2025 in Appeal No: CA/AK/270/2022, prayer (G) in the Amended Notice of Appeal filed on January 12, 2023 specifically prayed thus: “(G) An order restoring the appellants back into their offices having been duly elected by the citizens of Osun State.
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“At page 34 of the lead judgment, the Court of Appeal adopted the four issues formulated by the Appellant (APC) for consideration. Obvious from the said issues is that the issue of whether the purportedly elected officials of the APC could return back to the Local Government from which they were sacked by the Federal High Court, could only be considered under issues three and four which was formulated by the Appellant (APC) thus:
“Was the lower Court right to have granted the reliefs sought by the first respondent on the ground of non-compliance with the Electoral Act by the third respondent (ground six).
“Was the lower Court right to have made a consequential order nullifying the local government election of October 15, 2022 and ordering the duly elected officers to vacate their office forthwith despite such reliefs not having been sought by the first respondent. (Grounds seven, eight and nine).
“It is very clear that it is only after issue (four) above is answered in the negative that the Court of Appeal could proceed to order that these purported elected officials be returned to the local government.
“After considering issues one and two, the Court of Appeal at pages 49 and 50 of the lead judgment stated thus: “The lower court was clearly wrong in granting leave to amend an incompetent originating summon in such circumstances as the summons sought to be amend did not disclose any cause of action. The exercise of discretion by the lower court was wrongfully made and it is liable to be set aside,” they submitted.
All the 30 local governments in Osun State have been under lock and key since February this year when a deadly tussle for the control of the councils between the parties led to the loss of several lives.
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) has issued a stern warning to federal financial institutions and top government officials against flouting the latest judgment of the Court of Appeal affirming the tenure of democratically elected local government officials in Osun State.
In a strongly worded press conference held in Abuja on Wednesday, the President-General of NULGE, Comrade Aliyu Kankara, decried what he described as a “coordinated attempt to undermine local government autonomy” in Osun State by recognising and empowering individuals not constitutionally authorised to manage local council funds.
Kankara called on President Bola Tinubu to kindly address as a matter of urgency the matter the Accountant-General of the Federation, the Governor of the CBN, and the minister of Finance to immediately halt any move that could enable impostors to take control of Osun local government funds.