S’Court to hear Osun LG allocation dispute Tuesday as UBA gets fresh restraining order

The Supreme Court has scheduled Tuesday, October 7, 2025, to hear a pivotal case concerning the contested Osun State local government allocations — a dispute that has sparked multiple lawsuits and led to the freezing of council accounts.

Speaking with journalists after the latest proceedings, Musibau Adetunmbi, SAN, counsel to the Osun State Attorney-General, explained: “The crux of the matter is to safeguard the money in issue pending the Supreme Court’s determination on Tuesday, 7 October 2025.

“Our contention is that even those who paid the money knew the matter was already before the court. They should have respected the Supreme Court by holding on to the money. Let the Supreme Court speak, everybody will be happy, but for you to pay just like that is not acceptable.”

Ahead of the hearing, the Oyo State High Court in Ibadan on Friday extended its interim order restraining the United Bank for Africa (UBA) from allowing withdrawals on 30 accounts where the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) deposited withheld allocations belonging to Osun local councils.

Justice Ladiran Akintola, who delivered the ruling, noted that the extension was necessary to ensure a fair hearing for all parties listed in Suit No. 1/1149/2025: the Attorney-General of Osun State, the Osun State Local Government Service Commission, and UBA Plc.

While UBA’s legal representatives were absent, counsel to the court-sacked APC council chairmen, led by Kazeem Gbadamosi, SAN, appearing for Kunle Adegoke, SAN, was present after filing fresh applications for joinder and to challenge the court’s jurisdiction.

Adetunmbi, however, insisted that the former APC chairmen had no legal standing in the matter. He said: “The ex-LG chairmen remained strangers to the case since their application for joinder had not yet been decided upon by the court.”

He further explained: “I received the two applications yesterday (Thursday) and today (Friday). I will need time to study them as well as reply on points of law.”

But Gbadamosi countered, arguing that his clients were directly affected by the injunction granted on September 26, 2025. He maintained: “The court has no power in respect of a case in which its jurisdiction is being challenged to extend the order of life span that had expired.”

The court also admitted a fresh affidavit from Mrs. Aluko Rachael Abidemi, Head of Local Government Administration in Boluwaduro LGA, who alleged that certain individuals attempted to siphon council funds despite a subsisting order.

She claimed two men, who posed as chairman and treasurer, directed UBA to deduct 15% of allocations and transfer it to a private law firm, even though one of them “was neither a staff of Boluwaduro Local Government nor its Treasurer.”

Adetunmbi reinforced the need for the interim preservation order, adding: “As I earlier informed the court, there is a letter directing that 15% of the withheld funds from March to September — running into billions of naira — should be paid as legal fees to one individual. In what manner? By what procedure? Without this preservation order, the rest of the money would have been gone by now.”

On the joinder bid, the Attorney-General’s counsel declared: “We are going to oppose the joinder because nothing concerns them with this case.”

The lingering row over the withheld Osun local government allocations has seen the state government accuse federal authorities of bias and illegality, with Tuesday’s Supreme Court session expected to be decisive in determining the fate of the funds.

(SAHARA REPORTERS)