The All Progressives Congress in Osun State has warned Governor Ademola Adeleke’s administration over what it calls the victimisation of local government officials. The party’s state chairman cautioned the government against using security concerns as cover to intimidate political opponents or interfere with council operations, according to Daily Post. The warning is the latest escalation in a dispute over who controls the state’s 30 local government councils, a fight that has drawn in the courts, the police and the Attorney General of the Federation.
Background: the dispute over local government control in Osun
The standoff centers on a basic question: who has legal authority over Osun’s local councils. The APC says its elected officials were reinstated. Governor Adeleke insists his administration remains in charge following a Federal High Court order. Both sides claim legal backing, and both accuse the other of manufacturing instability for political gain.
Supreme Court ruling on LG autonomy and its role in the standoff
The dispute traces back to a July 2024 Supreme Court ruling that barred state governments from managing local government funds directly, a decision meant to enforce financial autonomy for the third tier of government. Attorney General of the Federation Lateef Fagbemi has accused Osun State of contempt, alleging the Adeleke administration disobeyed that ruling by continuing to control LG finances rather than allowing councils to manage their own allocations. That accusation has become a central plank in the APC’s case against the governor, turning the local government crisis into a question of compliance with the nation’s highest court, not just a state political dispute.
Reinstatement claims and the Federal High Court order
The APC maintains that its elected local government officials have been reinstated and are entitled to resume their duties as council chairmen. Governor Adeleke disputes this directly, saying the officials in question remain sacked under a Federal High Court order that has not been reversed. According to the APC the officials are reinstated; according to the governor they are sacked. That contradiction has left council administration in practical limbo, with both sides claiming legitimacy over the same offices.
APC’s specific allegations against the Adeleke government
The APC’s core complaint is that the Adeleke administration is using state machinery to push out APC-aligned council chairmen and replace them with loyalists, instead of resolving the dispute through the courts. The party’s state chairman urged the government to avoid triggering a fresh crisis in the local councils, saying the current tensions are avoidable if the administration steps back from confrontation, according to Daily Post’s report.
Claims of intimidation and use of security agencies against council chairmen
Central to the APC’s warning is the allegation that security agencies have been deployed against its council chairmen as a form of pressure. The party’s chairman specifically urged the Adeleke government not to use security concerns as a pretext to intimidate political opponents or interfere with local government administration. The APC is calling on the governor to keep security operations separate from the political contest over council control.
Governor Adeleke’s counter-accusations against the APC
Governor Adeleke has rejected the APC’s framing entirely, turning the accusation around on the party itself. He has accused the APC of deliberately creating unrest by paralyzing local government administration in Osun, arguing that it is the APC, not his administration, that is destabilising council operations for political advantage. In a separate statement, the governor’s camp described calls for a state of emergency in Osun as a “failed desperate act,” rejecting suggestions that the situation had deteriorated to a level requiring federal intervention.
Allegations of fund mismanagement and forceful occupation of councils
Adeleke’s allegations go further than disruption. He has accused the APC of seizing local government funds, mismanaging them, and forcefully occupying council premises as part of what he describes as a deliberate strategy to provoke violence and conflict, according to Daily Post. Rather than defending against accusations of misconduct, the governor’s camp has gone on the offensive, alleging that APC-aligned officials are the ones misusing public resources and physically taking over local government buildings without authority.
Adeleke’s call for IGP to withdraw police protection from APC chairmen
Governor Adeleke has also called on the Inspector General of Police to withdraw police protection currently extended to APC-aligned local government chairmen. The request, reported by Daily Post, puts the police at the center of the dispute. Adeleke argues that this allocation of security resources is enabling the APC’s occupation of council offices rather than maintaining neutral order. Separately, Adeleke has pointed to the legacy of the previous administration, alleging that civil servants were left struggling through the payment of half salaries and broader economic hardship, a point he has used to argue that his government inherited a weakened local government system rather than causing the current dysfunction.
Reactions from state institutions and political stakeholders
The dispute has drawn in federal legal authority as well as state political actors. Attorney General Fagbemi’s contempt accusation against Osun State places the Federal Ministry of Justice in the middle of a fight that started as a state-level council leadership contest. What began as a disagreement over who runs Osun’s 30 councils now carries the weight of an alleged Supreme Court violation, a matter that could draw further federal scrutiny regardless of how the local political contest resolves. Both the APC and the Adeleke administration have used public statements to stake out their positions, each accusing the other of using state or federal institutions, whether the police, the Federal High Court, or the Attorney General’s office, as leverage rather than neutral arbiters.
What could happen next in the Osun LG standoff
The immediate flashpoints are clear: the APC wants its reinstated chairmen recognized and protected from what it calls security-driven intimidation, while Governor Adeleke wants police protection withdrawn from those same officials and insists the Federal High Court order sacking them still stands. Neither side has indicated it will back down, and the contradictory claims about the officials’ legal status mean the dispute is likely headed toward further litigation rather than a negotiated resolution. The Attorney General’s contempt allegation over the Supreme Court’s LG autonomy ruling adds another layer. If federal authorities pursue that angle, Osun’s local government crisis could shift from a state political fight into a federal compliance matter, with consequences for how council funds are managed regardless of who ultimately holds the chairmanships.
Why the crisis matters beyond Osun State
Osun is not the only state grappling with the fallout of the Supreme Court’s July 2024 ruling on local government financial autonomy. The ruling was designed to strip state governors of control over council funds nationwide. How Osun’s dispute plays out, whether the Adeleke administration is found in contempt, whether the APC’s reinstated chairmen actually take office, will serve as a test case for enforcement elsewhere. States where governors have resisted ceding financial control to local councils will be watching whether Osun’s outcome establishes real consequences for non-compliance, or whether the ruling remains difficult to enforce in practice against a sitting state government.
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