By Bola Bamigbola
The Osun State chapter of the National Union of Local Government Employees on Sunday accused the Federal Government of improperly disbursing six months’ allocation intended for local government areas into accounts opened by the chairmen and councillors elected during the October 15, 2022, local government elections.
The payments, the union claims, were made despite pending court cases questioning the legitimacy of those accounts.
Speaking on behalf of the union, the NULGE chairman, Dr Nathaniel Ogungbangbe, described the release of the funds to accounts opened by chairmen elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress during the final days of the Adegboyega Oyetola administration as an abuse of power.
He criticised senior Federal Government officials, alleging they facilitated the questionable payments while legal disputes were ongoing.
Ogungbangbe also said the Minister of Finance, Mr Wale Edun, the Accountant General of the Federation, Babatunde Ogunjimi, and the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice of the Federation, Mr Lateef Fagbemi, abused their respective offices by facilitating the release of the allocation while there were pending court cases on the issue.
“Today, we have it on good authority that these three principal officers of the Federal Government have released the Osun State Local Government Councils’ allocations for March 2025 to August 2025 to the illegal bank accounts opened by court-sacked APC chairmen and councillors.
“We find this development very scary and alarming. Paying local government allocations into privately opened and illegal bank accounts of politicians is unbelievable, bizarre, and unprecedented in the history of public administration in Nigeria.
“These funds were paid to the accounts opened by these APC men with United Bank for Africa Plc, despite the fact that due process was not followed in opening the said accounts.
“We strongly believe that if these three principal officers of the Federal Government and the entire Federal Government which they represent do not have respect for our Constitution, which they have sworn to uphold, they ought to have respect for our judicial authorities, more particularly the Supreme Court of Nigeria, before whom the suit in respect of these funds is currently pending,” Ogungbangbe said.
He recalled that the Federal High Court of Nigeria on May 15, 2025, ordered parties to maintain status quo, noting that the order was acknowledged by the Central Bank of Nigeria as hindering it from making payment.
He added that the Federal High Court was to further sit on the matter on September 29, expressing concerns that the Federal Government, through the offices of the Minister of Finance, the Accountant General of the Federation, and the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice of the Federation, would disregard the authority of the court.
Insisting that the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal had effectively sacked APC chairmen and councillors from office, Ogungbangbe said, with the contrary opinion expressed by Fagbemi on the matter, the Supreme Court should have been allowed to pronounce on the tussle before the Federal Government proceeded to pay the statutory allocations to the accounts opened by the APC local government chairmen.
Commenting further, Ogungbangbe noted that fresh elections have been held with new chairmen and councillors elected and sworn in by the state governor, Adeleke, saying, “The Attorney-General cannot assume the role of the Supreme Court by setting aside the judgment of the Court of Appeal, which affirmed the sacking of the APC politicians by the Federal High Court. The Attorney-General is NOT above the law.
“We wish to state unequivocally that the alternative to the rule of law is what we do not want for our state. On our part, we appeal to all the good people of Osun State not to give the enemies of the state any room to cause crisis in the state. Their ultimate goal is to cause anarchy and use it to call on Mr President to declare a state of emergency in the state so that they could loot our resources.”
He appealed to Adeleke to continue ensuring peace in the state, declaring that local government staff in the state would not return to their duty posts.
Responding, Osun APC, in a statement signed by its spokesperson, Kola Olabisi, accused the union of interpreting court judgments about the delayed federal allocations for the state council chairmen to suit the interest of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party.
The APC dismissed claims that statutory funds were paid into private accounts, saying, “It is also not true that the said federal allocations are paid into the account of any of our local government council chairmen or any of the APC members or chieftains but into the local government councils’ accounts.”
The party added, “We want to, as a party which believes in the rule of law, make it abundantly clear that it is not the duty of the NULGE to interpret any court judgment and that the Court of Appeal judgment of February 10, 2025, which reinstated the APC local government council chairmen and their councillors, is still in force as there is no record anywhere that it was appealed against.
“The NULGE need not weave a series of lies in respect of the payment of the federal allocations for the local government councils in order to curry unmerited favour from the discerning members of the public, as they are wiser, having passed through hell in the hands of Ogungbangbe’s pursuit of self-interest.
“The sing-song of the NULGE before now was that some agencies of the Federal Government were withholding the accumulated federal allocations for the local government council areas.
“Now that the logjam in respect of the local government allocations for the state has been laid to rest, what would be the next excuse of the pungently pliable NULGE, which has been on sympathy strike with Governor Ademola Adeleke for seven months running just for failed efforts to annex local government funds?”
Calling on the police, operatives of the Department of State Services, and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps to maintain the watertight vigilance required to protect the people of the state, the party pleaded with the NULGE to shun brigandage, as Osun, being a subset of the country, is governed by the rule of law.
Efforts to reach Osun PDP spokesperson, Oladele Bamiji, for comment on the claim that NULGE was working along the party’s interests failed.
Bamiji could not be reached through his mobile line, and a response to a text message sent to him was still awaited when the report was filed.
