Supreme Court Scolds FG Over Withheld Osun Funds, Splits On Who’s Eligible To File Suit

By Ayodele Oni

The Supreme Court has ruled that only the duly elected officials of local governments have the right to file the suit challenging the seizure of allocation to local councils in Osun state.

The Apex Court, therefore, struck out a suit filed by the Attorney General of Osun State against the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), over the withheld local government allocations in the state.

The Court held that the Osun state Attorney General has no legal right to have instituted the case on behalf of the 30 local governments in the state.

The judgement noted that those who won the local government election and have been inaugurated are the juridical persons that can sue and be sued directly.

However, the Court slammed  the Federal Government for withholding the local government fund, adding that the action was in grave breach of the 1999 Constitution.

Justice Mohammed Idris, who read the lead judgment, said that the hand of the federal government was soiled in its decision to unjustly seize funds and admonished it to strictly ensure that the funds are directly channelled to local accounts.

The Justice also dismissed AGF’s contempt allegations against Osun, adding that he was in more contempt than Osun by not paying the fund as required by law.

The court, however, said that since there was no evidence that the Osun Attorney General was briefed by the local governments, he ought not to have filed the case on their behalf.

In a minority judgment by Justice Emmanuel Agim, disagreed with the six other justices, holding that Osun Attorney General has the right to institute the case.

Justice Agim said that the action of the federal government in withholding the local governments funds was in bad taste because it was capable of crippling the activities of the councils.

There have been allegations of victimisation against the federal government by Governor Adeleke, saying President Tinubu is punishing the state for not being under the control of the All Progressives Congress (APC).