Osun Govt ‘withdraws’ suit over withheld LG funds

The Osun State Government on Friday filed a notice to withdraw its suit against the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF) at the Federal High Court, Abuja.

Counsel to the state government, Musibau Adetumbi (SAN), informed Justice Emeka Nwite that the case had become redundant.

Adetumbi explained that the matter, which sought to protect local government funds allegedly withheld, had been overtaken by events since the allocation in question had already been moved from the CBN by the defendants.

PlatinumPost reports that the Osun Attorney General filed the suit on behalf of the state government against the CBN, the AGF, and the Attorney-General of the Federation.

However, on Sept. 22, Justice Nwite struck out the name of the Attorney-General of the Federation from the case after the plaintiff discontinued action against him, noting that a similar case was already before the Supreme Court.

The suit sought to restrain the Federal Government from releasing local government allocations to sacked chairmen and councillors elected during the tenure of former Governor Adegboyega Oyetola.

“On September 29, 2025, when the matter was heard, I told the court that our primary aim was to safeguard the money.

“Between then and now, we are sure that, notwithstanding the pendency of the case and order of status quo, the money was moved out of the CBN,” Adetumbi said.

He told the court that the notice of discontinuance was filed in line with Order 51 Rule 2 of the Federal High Court Rules, arguing that continuing with the matter would amount to “an academic exercise.”

Counsel for the CBN, Muritala Abdulrasheed (SAN), and for the AGF, Tajudeen Oladoja (SAN), did not oppose the application to discontinue the case but disagreed with some claims in the affidavit of facts attached to it.

Abdulrasheed argued that the plaintiff’s affidavit contained “damaging depositions” about individuals who were not parties to the case and urged the court to have the affidavit withdrawn alongside the notice of discontinuance.

“Somebody can approach the court any day with a request for a Certified True Copy (CTC) of the process and may decide to use it against the persons mentioned in the plaintiff’s affidavit of facts,” the CBN’s lawyer said.

He maintained that the grounds for the discontinuance were made in bad faith and disputed the plaintiff’s claim that the first defendant had no competent defence, pointing out that a 12-paragraph counter-affidavit had been filed in May.

He asked the court to strike out paragraphs five to eleven of the plaintiff’s affidavit for being inaccurate and referring to non-parties.

Counsel to the AGF, Oladoja, also did not oppose the withdrawal but objected to the grounds supporting it.

“However, we are in vehement opposition to the 2nd ground upon which the application is predicated.
“The plaintiff is not under any obligation to predicate his application on any ground,” he said.

Oladoja argued that the plaintiff was wrong to state that the AGF had no valid defence, urging the court to strike out the first and second grounds of the discontinuance notice. He also requested a cost of ₦10 million against the plaintiff for initiating the suit and wasting the court’s time.

In response, Adetumbi maintained that a notice of discontinuance under Order 50 Rule 2 of the Federal High Court Rules does not attract costs, stressing that the defendants had failed to file their processes within time.

“It is their default to have filed their process out of time. They cannot approach the court to ask for cost or expunging any of the grounds in the notice of discontinuance,” he said.

Justice Nwite adjourned the matter to Oct. 29 for ruling on the plaintiff’s application for discontinuance and other related motions.
NAN earlier reported that the court had dismissed objections by the CBN and the AGF, ruling that the Osun Attorney-General had the locus standi (legal right) to institute the action on behalf of the local government authorities.