The Supreme Court, on Tuesday, reserved for judgement a suit seeking to compel the Federal Government to release all the allocations belonging to Local Government Councils, LGCs, in Osun State, which it seized.
A seven-member panel of the court, led by Justice Uwani Abba-Aji, okayed the matter for judgement after both the Attorney General of the Federation and the Attorney General of Osun State, through their respective counsel, adopted their briefs of argument.
As well as: “An order of perpetual injunction restraining the defendant from further withholding, suspending and/or seizing the monthly allocations, revenues and/or funds standing to the credit of the constituent Local Government Councils of the plaintiff state for as long as the plaintiff state has in place democratically elected Local Government Councils in its state.”
While adopting his processes on Tuesday, counsel to the state told the Supreme Court that the AGF had, in a letter dated March 26, directed that the withheld allocations should be released to APC chairmen and councillors that were already sacked from office by a court judgement.
He said, “My Lords, even while this matter was pending before this court, the defendant attempted to destroy the res (subject matter) by attempting to pay the money to one of the contending parties.
“They actually paid through the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, but we were lucky to get an order that stopped the release of the money,” Osun state’s lawyer, Adetunbi, SAN, added as he urged the court to grant all the reliefs.
However, counsel to the AGF, Olujimi, SAN, drew the attention of the court to a preliminary objection he filed to challenge the competence of the suit.
Seeking the dismissal of the suit, the AGF argued that the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court was not properly invoked, insisting that at the centre of the action was a contention between the APC and PDP over who should occupy LG positions in Osun state.
“The fact of the case is that the APC LG officials have a three-year term of office that is still running and will expire on October 22.
“However, the state has made it impossible for the officials to function, filing cases up and down to frustrate them from performing their duties.
“Our position is that this is not a matter for this court. This court can only be approached by activating its original jurisdiction as provided in the Constitution.
“Moreover, the suit has not disclosed any cause of action. We also contend that the plaintiff not only lacked the locus standi but was also involved in an abuse of the judicial process,” Olujimi, SAN, added.
After it had listened to both sides, the Justice Abba-Aji-led panel said it would communicate the judgement date to all the parties.
Earlier, the court struck out another suit marked SC/379/2025, which Osun State said it filed before the AGF gave the directive for the withheld funds to be released to the APC LG chairmen and councillors.
-Vanguard
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