The Supreme Court of Nigeria has reserved judgment in a suit filed by the Osun State government against the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) over the alleged withholding of local government allocations belonging to the state.
Justice Uwani Abba-Aji, who led a seven-man panel of Justices, announced that judgment had been reserved to a date to be communicated to both parties, following the adoption of arguments on Tuesday.
In the suit, the Attorney General of Osun State invoked the Supreme Court’s original jurisdiction, seeking an order compelling the AGF to immediately release statutory allocations to the chairmen and councillors of the state’s 30 local government areas.
The plaintiff’s counsel, Musibau Adetunbi (SAN), argued that the AGF acted unlawfully by withholding the funds and recognizing disputed APC chairmen through an official letter, despite ongoing litigation over their legitimacy.
Adetunbi asked the apex court to grant all the reliefs sought, insisting that the AGF’s action amounted to executive interference in the affairs of a state and violated the principle of fiscal federalism.
Counsel to the Attorney General of the Federation, Akin Olujimi (SAN), opposed the suit, urging the court to dismiss it on multiple grounds.
Olujimi contended that the Osun government lacked the legal authority to bring the matter directly before the Supreme Court, arguing that the case did not fall within the court’s original jurisdiction.
He further maintained that the suit disclosed no reasonable cause of action, stressing that the tenure of the disputed APC chairmen would not expire until October 22, 2025, and that the withheld funds rightly belonged to them for the administration of their councils.
The AGF’s counsel also accused the Osun government of abuse of court processes, noting that it had filed similar cases in multiple courts involving the same subject matter and parties.
Olujimi therefore urged the Supreme Court to dismiss the suit in its entirety, insisting that the AGF’s actions were lawful and consistent with existing judicial pronouncements recognizing the APC-led local government administrations.
The Osun State government had challenged the AGF’s decision to recognize and fund the APC local government chairmen, whose elections were nullified by a Federal High Court and upheld by the Court of Appeal in Abuja.
The state maintains that the allocations should instead be remitted to its recognized local government administrators, pending the outcome of the substantive dispute.
The apex court’s forthcoming decision is expected to set a major precedent in defining the fiscal relationship between the Federal Government and state-controlled local governments.
