Supreme Court Dismisses Osun’s Suit Against FG Over Withheld LG Funds

The Supreme Court on Friday struck out a case filed by the Osun State Government seeking to compel the Federal Government to release statutory allocations allegedly withheld from the state’s Local Government Councils (LGCs).

A seven-member panel of the apex court, in a 6–1 split decision, ruled that the suit initiated by the Osun State Attorney General was incompetent.

Delivering the lead judgment, Justice Mohammed Idris held that the state lacked the locus standi to invoke the Supreme Court’s original jurisdiction on behalf of its 30 Local Government Councils. He stressed that the court can only act as a court of first instance in disputes between a state and the Federal Government, while LGCs are constitutionally recognized autonomous bodies with the power to sue and be sued.

Justice Idris maintained that the councils—not the state government—were the proper parties to challenge the Federal Government’s actions, adding that the apex court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the matter. He rejected Osun’s argument that the suit fell under public interest litigation.

Although the court upheld the preliminary objection filed by the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), it also reminded the Federal Government of its obligation to fully implement the earlier judgment granting fiscal autonomy to all 774 LGAs.

In the suit, marked SC/CV/775/2025, Osun State sought 10 reliefs, including a declaration that the AGF must enforce court rulings affirming the existence of democratically elected LGCs following the February 22, 2025 elections.

The state further asked the court to declare that the AGF could not disregard binding judgments of both the Federal High Court (delivered November 30, 2022) and the Court of Appeal (delivered June 13, 2025) “by unlawfully and unilaterally bequeathing the statutory allocations accruing to the benefit of the 30 LGCs of the plaintiff to its own choice candidates.”

Osun also sought orders restraining the AGF from directing that funds be paid to sacked APC chairmen and councillors from the nullified October 15, 2022 local government election, as well as orders mandating the immediate release of all withheld allocations into accounts of officials elected in February 2025.

While adopting his arguments, counsel for Osun State, Musibau Adetunbi, SAN, told the court that the AGF had, in a March 26 letter, ordered that the funds be released to the previously removed APC officials. He added that the Central Bank of Nigeria already attempted to release the money but was stopped due to a court order.

The AGF, through his counsel, Chief Akin Olujimi, SAN, countered that no valid cause of action existed, accusing the Osun government of attempting to frustrate the APC’s local government officials whose three-year tenure expired on October 22.

“The state has made it impossible for the officials to function, filing cases up and down to frustrate them from performing their duties,” Olujimi argued. He maintained that the matter did not fall under the Supreme Court’s original jurisdiction and insisted that Osun lacked locus standi and had abused judicial processes.

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