The Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused Governor Ademola Adeleke of deliberately distorting facts surrounding local government administration and statutory allocations in the state.
Addressing a press conference on Wednesday at the APC State Secretariat along Osogbo–Gongan Road, Ogo-Oluwa, Osogbo, the party’s chairman, Sooko Tajudeen Lawal, described the governor’s recent statewide broadcast as “built on misrepresentation, selective narration of facts and a calculated attempt to deflect responsibility.”
Governor Adeleke, in a broadcast titled “The Illegal Occupation of Local Government Secretariats and the Defence of Democratic Order in Osun State,” had alleged that reinstated APC chairmen and councillors were illegally occupying local government secretariats and accused the Federal Government of withholding local government allocations.
Lawal dismissed the claims as false and misleading, insisting that the return of APC local government officials was based on valid judicial pronouncements.
“It is patently untrue to describe the reinstated APC chairmen and councillors as illegal occupants of local government secretariats,” Lawal said. “Their reinstatement followed the judgment of the Court of Appeal delivered on February 10, 2025, which nullified the basis of their earlier removal. That judgment remains valid, binding and unappealed.”
The APC chairman further accused Governor Adeleke of omitting critical facts, noting that the crisis in the local government system began when the governor, upon assumption of office, dissolved elected APC councils and replaced them with caretaker committees.
“That executive action, taken without exhausting judicial processes, laid the foundation for the instability now being unfairly blamed on others,” he said.
On allegations of tenure elongation, Lawal clarified that the matter currently before the Federal High Court in Osogbo concerns the interpretation of the constitutionally guaranteed three-year tenure of elected council officials and the legality of conducting new local government elections while that tenure subsists.
“This is a legitimate judicial inquiry, not an attempt at tenure extension,” he stressed.
The APC also rejected claims that the Federal Government was withholding local government allocations, describing such assertions as deceptive.
According to Lawal, the Osun State Government and its allies have instituted multiple lawsuits, including cases against commercial banks, aimed at preventing the release of funds to the reinstated APC councils.
“These litigations, not any action of the Federal Government, are the real reasons the funds have not been released,” he said.
Lawal cited a recent Supreme Court judgment affirming the autonomy of local governments as distinct legal entities with the power to sue and be sued, while holding that state governments lack the locus standi to litigate on their behalf in matters relating to council funds.
“In spite of this clear constitutional position, Governor Adeleke continues to act as though local governments are appendages of the state executive,” he added, describing the governor’s posture as constitutional overreach.
The APC chairman also accused the governor of scapegoating former governor Gboyega Oyetola, now Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, for what he described as the shortcomings of the current administration.
He further recalled the killing of Hon. Remi Abass, the reinstated chairman of Irewole Local Government, warning that inflammatory rhetoric could escalate political tensions.
Calling for restraint, Lawal urged Governor Adeleke to withdraw all pending litigations hindering the release of local government allocations and allow funds already domiciled in commercial banks to reach the councils.
“The people of Osun State deserve governance anchored in truth, constitutional fidelity and respect for the rule of law — not persistent misinformation and manufactured conflicts,” he said.
Answering questions from journalists after the press conference, a former commissioner for information, Sunday Akere, warned the state government against dragging Minister Gboyega Oyetola into the matter.
Akere debunked allegations by Governor Adeleke that Oyetola was using the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, and the Osun State Police Command to cause confusion by providing police protection for the reinstated chairmen and councillors.
Also speaking, the chairman of the Osun State chapter of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), Abiodun Idowu, said the reinstated APC chairmen would abide by any final court decision after exhausting all legal processes up to the Supreme Court.