Osun State Drags AGF To Supreme Court Over Withheld Council Funds

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.

This move comes months after the government withdrew an earlier suit on the same matter.

In the new 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 order the Federal Government to release all seized funds.

The state also wants an end to what it described as “an unconstitutional and arbitrary seizure” of council revenues.

The State Attorney General argued that the AGF had ignored subsisting judgments of the Federal High Court in Osogbo, delivered on the 30th of November, 2022, and the Court of Appeal judgment of June 13, 2025, which affirmed the legitimacy of council chairmen and councillors elected on February 22, 2025.

The state noted that despite these judgments, the AGF, in a March 26, 2025 letter, directed that local government funds be withheld pending resolution of what he described as a “local government crisis.”

However, Osun maintained that the appellate court ruling had already settled the issue, having nullified the October 2022 local government elections conducted under the previous administration.

Among its prayers, the state is seeking a declaration that the AGF lacks constitutional power to seize local government funds, that his directive contravenes valid court judgments, and that all withheld allocations should be released directly into the accounts of the duly elected councils.

It is also asking for a perpetual injunction restraining future seizures.

Simultaneously, the government has filed another suit at the Federal High Court, Osogbo, challenging the Chief Judge’s decision to transfer a similar case on the same funds to Abuja.

The state warned that pursuing the Abuja case while the Supreme Court is handling the matter could lead to conflicting judgments.