Politics

Osun to refund N84bn to reinstated APC chairmen, FG tells Supreme Court

Published by admin on June 8th, 2025.

Osun to refund N84bn to reinstated APC chairmen, FG tells Supreme Court

Court

The Federal Government of Nigeria has urged the Supreme Court of Nigeria to order the Osun State Government to refund the 8 month allocations due to the 30 local governments in the state which the Adeleke government collected from July 2024 to February 2025.

The FG stated this in an affidavit deposed to by the Special Assistant to the President, Taiye Hussain Oloyede in response to Suit No: SC/CV/379/2025 by the Osun State Government against the Federal Government.

According to the Federal Government, “the only way to vindicate the authority of the Supreme Court is to order the plaintiff ( Osun State Government) to pay back to the Minister of Finance all the money due to the local governments of Osun which the plaintiff claimed it had collected from July 2024 to February 2025. The Minister of Finance will then pay the money to the owners of same ( the local governments of Osun State.”

A check at the Office of the Accountant General of the Federal indicated that from July 2024 and February, 2025, N84 billion was disbursed to the 30 local governments of Osun State, the money which the state government cornered and appropriated without legal authority.

A further check showed that in July and August 2024, N9.7bn and N8.8bn were paid respectively. In September, N9.4bn was paid while N10.5bn was disbursed for the month of October.

However, in November, the net allocation went up to N11.5bn while in December, N10.3bn was paid. For the months of January and February 2025, N12.2bn and N12bn were paid in that order.

The FG explained that only those elected in the local election conducted by the immediate past government of Osun State on the platform of the All Progressives Congress that are in charge of the affairs of the local government and only banks account details supplied by them to the office of the Minister of Finance could be recognized for the direct receipt of the LG’s monthly allocation.

The FG argued that the Court of Appeal in February 2025 legalized the local government election conducted under the administration of ex-Governor Adegboyega Oyetola and only the officials produced by the election are legally mandated to appropriate the monthly allocation due to the local governments in the state.

The FG clarified that the Supreme Court judgement of 11th July, 2024 has made it illegal for a state government or its governor or other agencies to keep, control, manage, or disburse in any manner allocations from the Federal Account to Local Governments.