The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, has petitioned the Supreme Court to compel the Osun State Government to refund seven months’ worth of local government allocations to the Minister of Finance.
This request was made in Fagbemi’s response, filed through his counsel Chief Akin Olujimi SAN, to a suit initiated by the Osun State Government.
Osun State had sued the AGF, alleging that the Federal Government failed to release its 30 local government councils’ statutory allocations for March 2025.
Read Also: Tinubu Government Neglects The North, Develops Southern Nigeria – Kwankwaso
In the suit (SC/CV/379/2025), Osun claimed that when it inquired about the unpaid funds, the Minister of Finance, Wale Odun, allegedly stated he was acting under the AGF’s directive.
However, the AGF denied this claim, challenging the legitimacy of Osun’s suit and accusing the state government of contempt for allegedly disobeying a Supreme Court judgment issued on July 11, 2024.
Fagbemi argued that Osun’s reliance on a 2004 case (AG Lagos State v. AG Federation) for precedent was misplaced.
In a counter-affidavit deposed by Taye Oloyede, Special Assistant to the President, the AGF maintained that neither he nor the Minister of Finance instructed the withholding of Osun’s local government funds.
Oloyede testified that on May 22, 2025, the Minister of Finance denied ever receiving such instructions. The affidavit also noted that Osun State never alleged a presidential order for withholding funds, nor did it provide evidence of deliberate withholding.
Oloyede emphasized that direct payment of allocations to local governments only requires them to submit account details to the Ministry of Finance.
He asserted that the current administrators of Osun’s local governments were elected under the previous APC-led state government and are expected to remain in office until October 2025.
He claimed Osun failed to demonstrate that its local governments had submitted their account details to the Finance Ministry.
Read Also: Adeleke Under Pressure To Defect To APC – Former Governor Oyinlola
Furthermore, Oloyede argued that Osun lacked the legal authority or the consent of the local governments to initiate the lawsuit.
The affidavit indicated Osun’s intention to use the local government allocations to fund state-level health and education initiatives, directly contravening the Supreme Court’s judgment prohibiting states from managing local government finances.
He also pointed out that an earlier Federal High Court ruling favoring the Osun State Governor had been overturned by the Court of Appeal.
Fagbemi insisted that the Osun State Government was in contempt of the July 11, 2024, Supreme Court order in AGF v. Attorney General of Abia State & Others.
This ruling mandated that local government allocations be paid directly to local councils, not through state governments, and barred states from collecting or disbursing these funds.
Osun, listed as Defendant 29 in that earlier suit, had acknowledged the order but allegedly continued to receive and spend local government funds from July 2024 to February 2025.
The AGF described Osun’s current lawsuit as a calculated attempt to gain the Supreme Court’s backing to continue violating its own previous ruling.
He termed it “egregious contempt” and requested the court enforce judicial accountability.
“The only way to vindicate the authority of this court,” he stated, “is to order the plaintiff to pay back all LG funds collected between July 2024 and February 2025. These should be remitted to the Minister of Finance for onward transfer to the respective local governments.”
In a five-ground preliminary objection, the AGF argued:
- The plaintiff is not entitled to be heard due to contempt.
- The plaintiff has no right of appeal against the Supreme Court’s decision.
- The case does not present a genuine dispute to trigger the court’s original jurisdiction under Section 232(1) of the Constitution.
- The plaintiff has no locus standi (legal standing) to sue on behalf of local governments.
- Only local governments—not state governments—can seek redress for unpaid allocations. The AGF stressed that Osun State had improperly appointed itself as a “watchdog” over local government funds, despite having no authority to litigate on their behalf, concluding that if any local government was wrongly deprived of funds, only the council itself has the right to sue.
Meanwhile, it has been gathered that the Osun State Government has withdrawn the suit. However, Olujimi confirmed this, adding that the suit remains in court until the application for withdrawal is formally heard by the court in September.
Join Informant Online WhatsApp Channel With Link Below: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaihFajBadmT29ufud2
