Supreme Court Reserves Judgment on Osun’s Suit Against AGF Over Withheld LG Funds
The Supreme Court of Nigeria on Tuesday reserved judgment in the suit filed by the Osun State Government seeking to stop the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) from releasing withheld local government funds to disputed chairmen elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Justice Uwani Aba’aji, who led a seven-man panel of Justices, reserved judgment after hearing arguments from counsel to both parties. Musbau Adetumbi, SAN, represented the Osun State Attorney General, while Chief Akin Olujimi, SAN, appeared for the AGF.
Justice Aba’aji announced that the date for the delivery of judgment in the suit, marked SC/CV/773/2025, would be communicated to the parties in due course.
In the suit, the Osun State Attorney General is asking the apex court to compel the AGF to release statutory allocations to the chairmen and councillors elected for the 30 local government areas of the state.
The state government also invoked the Supreme Court’s original jurisdiction, challenging the AGF’s letter that accorded recognition to the disputed APC chairmen. It further sought an order stopping the AGF from withholding or suspending monthly allocations meant for the local governments, insisting that democratically elected chairmen were already in place.
The Osun government argued that the AGF’s recognition of the APC chairmen was wrong, especially as the election that brought them to office had been nullified by a Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal in Abuja.
Adetumbi urged the apex court to grant all the reliefs sought by his client, insisting that the AGF’s action undermines judicial processes.
However, Olujimi, representing the AGF, opposed the suit through a preliminary objection. He argued that the Osun State Government lacked the legal standing (locus standi) to bring the matter before the Supreme Court, as the dispute was essentially between two political parties.
He also contended that the apex court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the suit in its current form, noting that it was not properly initiated. Olujimi further argued that the case disclosed no reasonable cause of action, pointing out that the tenure of the disputed chairmen runs until October 22, and therefore, statutory allocations should be released to them to run the councils.
Additionally, he accused the Osun Attorney General of abusing court processes by filing similar cases in about seven different high courts involving the same parties and subject matter.
He urged the Supreme Court to dismiss the suit in its entirety.
