Press conference by the leadership and members of NULGE, Osun State chapter on Sunday, 28 September, 2025

*Press conference by the leadership and members of NULGE, Osun State chapter on Sunday, 28 September, 2025*

Gentlemen of the press. The crisis rocking the Local Government Councils in Osun State is no longer news. However, we need to address you on the current abuse of power by the Honorable Minister of Finance, the Accountant General of the Federation, and the Honorable Attorney General and Minister of Justice of the Federation. 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 the month of March, 2025 to September, 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. 

Gentlemen, 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. 

It is on record that the Federal High Court of Nigeria on 15th May, 2025 ordered parties to maintain status quo, an order which has been acknowledged by the Central Bank of Nigeria as hindering them from making payment. It is public knowledge that the Federal High Court is to further sit on this matter on 29/09/2025. It is worrisome that these officers and the Federal Authorities, which they represent, do not have respect for the authority of the Courts. We wish to remind them that a Country that does not have respect for its own Judicial Authorities is digging its own grave. 

We have no iota of doubt that the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal had effectively sacked these purported APC Chairmen and Councillors from 

office. However, since the Federal Government, led by an interested Attorney General, holds a contrary view, common sense dictates that the Apex Court should have been allowed to pronounce one way or the other before it would proceed to pay the statutory allocations to the accounts opened by its own choice officials, rather than the accounts legally opened by the 30 local governments with the statutory career officers as signatories.

We are not politicians, but our work as career officers who are expected to protect the assets of the councils is directly impacted by this illegal action of the federal government. There are existing bank  accounts of the 30 local governments in various commercial banks. What informed the opening of the UBA accounts by the APC politicians in the names of the 30 local governments in Osun State, with the active support of the Attorney General of the Federation? 

This is supposed to be a democracy and we insist on the RULE OF LAW. We can not be expected to work with politicians who have been sacked by competent courts of law but are being imposed on our state by the Attorney General. 

For emphasis, we repeat that the judgments of both the federal high court and the court of appeal have removed these politicians from the local governments. New elections have been held with new chairmen and councilors elected and sworn in. 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 Attoney-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 the Mr. President to declare a state of emergency in the state so that they could loot our resources. We appeal to Mr. Governor to continue to ensure absolute peace in the state as he is excellently doing. Let all of us have faith in the Almighty God and our courts. By His special grace, this cup shall soon pass. 

May the Almighty God bless Osun State, and may He bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Amen.