30
Jan
Jan
LEADERS PLAN MASS ACTION OVER ILLEGAL COCCUPATION, WITHHELD FUNDS IN OSUN LOCAL GOVERNMENTS
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Nicolas Adekeye / 5 days
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- 4 min read
Leaders of organised civil society groups, labour unions and youth activists have announced plans to storm Osun State in February. This move is a response to what they describe as the illegal occupation of local government councils and the severe hardship imposed on residents through the diversion and withholding of council funds. The announcement was made by the Movement for Credible Elections (MCE). The group condemned the complicity of the Federal Government and the Police authorities in allowing Osun local government councils to be occupied by impostors. This is despite clear and subsisting rulings from courts of competent jurisdiction. The Movement recalled that the Federal High Court sitting in Osogbo nullified the tenure of the former chairmen and councillors sponsored by the All Progressives Congress (APC) in November 2022. According to the MCE, this judgment was upheld by the Court of Appeal on February 10, 2025, and reaffirmed again on June 13, 2025. The courts ruled that the elections that produced them were conducted in clear violation of the law. MCE unequivocally condemned the continued diversion and withholding of statutory allocations meant for Osun local governments. It described the situation as unlawful, immoral and a dangerous abuse of the Nigerian Constitution. The Movement said the actions were aimed at frustrating and coercing the Osun State Government, which was duly elected on a political platform different from that of the party controlling the Federal Government. The Movement also questioned the authority under which APC chairmen and councillors are currently running Osun local governments. It noted that they have openly admitted that their so-called tenure has expired and that they have approached the court for tenure elongation, a case that is yet to be heard. “So under what authority are they holding on to the local governments and administering local government funds, if by state law it is only career civil servants that can be signatories to local government accounts?” the Movement queried in a statement signed by Comrade James Ezema, Media Coordinator of MCE. MCE further raised concerns over the role of the United Bank for Africa (UBA) in the crisis. It questioned why the bank is allegedly taking subversive directives from Abuja and leaders of the Osun APC to pay out council funds to politicians without lawful mandates. It asked why UBA would violate Osun local government laws by releasing funds under such circumstances. The statement quoted the Movement’s Head of Secretariat, Che Olawale Okunniyi, as describing the occupation of council secretariats by APC chairmen and councillors as a brazen subversion of the rule of law and Nigeria’s democratic order. He condemned the Federal Government and the Police for emboldening the illegal occupants, who, according to him, continue to hold the state to ransom and boast that they will not vacate council secretariats despite subsisting court orders. MCE noted that under what it described as “imposed impunity,” the most affected are retirees, healthcare workers and the general masses. The Movement questioned why the Federal Government and its agents in Abuja would take joy in the suffering and hardship of the Osun people. Reiterating that the local government system is a constitutionally recognised and autonomous tier of government, MCE stressed that statutory allocations to councils belong to the people at the grassroots, not to the Federal Government or any ruling party. It stated that the withholding of these funds has directly resulted in unpaid salaries, crippled primary healthcare services, abandoned basic education responsibilities and untold suffering among ordinary citizens in Osun State. The Movement warned that history is repeating itself in an unfortunate manner. It recalled that the politicisation of local government allocations has long been condemned by democrats, civil society, the courts and even President Bola Tinubu during his tenure as Governor, as a violation of the principles of democratic federalism practiced in Nigeria. MCE cautioned that continuing along this path poses grave dangers to Nigeria’s democracy, the rule of law and national cohesion. It warned that normalising the financial strangulation of states and local governments on partisan grounds sets a precedent capable of destabilising the country’s democratic order. The Movement reaffirmed its commitment to defending democracy and constitutionalism through popular advocacy for credible elections. It called on civil society organisations, labour unions, youths, professional bodies and all lovers of democracy to remain on alert and prepare to storm Osun State in February to intervene in what it described as grave injustice against the suffering masses of the state.
