The Osun State House of Assembly has issued a stern warning to the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), threatening legal action should any attempt be made to disburse local government allocations into unauthorised accounts.
The development comes amidst a lingering political crisis over the control of local government councils in Osun State, which has led to the closure of council secretariats since February 2025.
The standoff stems from a tussle between elected officials of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and those of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), following conflicting court rulings on the legitimacy of the October 15, 2022 local government elections.
During its plenary session on Thursday, the Assembly deliberated extensively on the matter. Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Wale Egbedun, read the resolution passed by the lawmakers, expressing concern over reports that the Office of the AGF and the CBN may be plotting to release the withheld allocations to individuals not recognised by law.
Citing a joint allegation made by the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Hon. Dosu Babatunde, and the President of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Osun State Chapter, Dr. Kehinde Ogungbangbe, the House maintained that such action would be a violation of existing financial laws and procedures governing local government administration in the state.
The House affirmed that, according to Section 14.0 of the 2025 Guidelines for the Administration of Local Government Areas in Osun State, only designated career officers—specifically the Directors of Finance and Administration and General Services—are authorised signatories to local government accounts.
Furthermore, any Bank Confirmation and Schedule must be duly endorsed by both the Head of Local Government Administration (HLGA) and the Local Government Chairman to be considered valid.
“Any attempt to substitute these officers with unauthorised persons is not only unlawful but constitutes an attempt to divert public funds,” Speaker Egbedun declared. “This House shall take all lawful measures to resist, report, and reverse such infractions.”
The Assembly called on the AGF and the Minister of Finance to immediately release all outstanding statutory allocations to Osun’s local governments through only the lawful and designated accounts.
It also strongly condemned any move by unauthorised individuals to engage the CBN for transactions relating to local government funds, warning that such actions would undermine the constitutional and statutory framework for public finance.
The lawmakers pledged to enforce their resolutions through all available legal, legislative, and constitutional channels, including litigation, in order to safeguard the integrity of public funds and uphold the principle of local government autonomy.
Concluding the address, the Speaker reaffirmed that only the democratically elected local government officials from the February 2025 elections remain the legally recognised custodians of local governance in the state, noting that the Federal High Court judgment nullifying the October 2022 elections remains valid and binding.