Supreme Court has reserved its ruling in a high-stakes constitutional dispute between the Osun State Government and the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, over the withholding of federal allocations to the state’s 30 local government councils.
A seven-member panel of justices, led by Justice Uwani Aba-Aji, reserved judgment after hearing arguments from both parties on Tuesday. The court said it would communicate the judgment date in due course.
The Osun State Government, represented by Musbau Adetunbi, SAN, is asking the apex court to declare the seizure of local government allocations since March 2025 as unconstitutional, unlawful, and a violation of existing court rulings.
“The AGF has no constitutional authority to withhold these funds, especially in light of valid judgments from both the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal affirming the legitimacy of our elected local government officials,” Adetunbi argued.
The state filed a total of 10 reliefs and five core issues for the Supreme Court to determine, including whether the AGF violated Section 287 of the 1999 Constitution by refusing to enforce subsisting court orders.
At the heart of the case is the AGF’s March 26, 2025 letter, in which he directed the suspension of the state’s local government allocations pending the resolution of a political dispute surrounding the February 2022 council elections.
However, Osun contends that the dispute was already resolved by court rulings, which nullified the elections conducted under the previous APC-led administration and upheld the legitimacy of officials elected under the current administration.
“This action amounts to an affront to the rule of law,” the Osun Government insisted, citing legal precedents such as AG Kano v. AG Federation (2007) and RMAFC v. AG Rivers (2023).
The state is also seeking a perpetual injunction to prevent any future withholding of statutory allocations and demands that all withheld funds be immediately paid into the accounts of the duly elected local councils.
Adding another layer to the legal standoff, Osun also challenged a recent decision by the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court to transfer a related case from Osogbo to Abuja, warning that parallel proceedings risk conflicting rulings.
The government accused the AGF of engineering a “self-induced urgency,” noting that his legal team waited over 80 days before responding to court filings, only to later raise an emergency motion.
Adetunbi also criticized the AGF’s move to recognize APC-aligned local government officials while the matter was still pending in court, describing the act as prejudicial.
In response, the AGF’s lead counsel, Chief Akin Olujimi, SAN, entered a preliminary objection, urging the court to dismiss the suit on multiple procedural and jurisdictional grounds.
The Supreme Court is now tasked with determining whether the federal government’s actions violate constitutional provisions and judicial precedents—or whether the AGF acted within legal bounds.
NAN
