“Osun Workers Are Suffering” – Adeleke Begs Tinubu Over Withheld LG Allocations

Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, has appealed to President Bola Tinubu to intervene and order the release of local government allocations being withheld from the state.

The dispute dates back to February 2025, when the Osun State Government conducted local government elections across its 30 councils.

The election was followed by violence, disagreements, and court cases, as former council chairmen elected under the All Progressives Congress (APC) sought to return to office, relying on a court judgment.

Before the elections, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, advised Adeleke to stop the process and direct the state electoral commission to suspend the polls.

He argued that the sacked council chairmen should be reinstated after the Court of Appeal overturned the judgment that removed them.

Despite the advice, Governor Adeleke went ahead with the elections which saw the APC and the Labour Party pull out of the exercise.

Following the election, the APC asked the federal government to stop the release of local government funds, claiming the elections were illegal.

Following the election, the Supreme Court dismissed a case filed by the Osun State Attorney-General seeking to compel the Attorney-General of the Federation to release all withheld allocations directly to the councils run by officials elected in the February 2025 polls.

The court ruled that the state attorney-general lacked the authority to sue on behalf of the 30 local governments.

However, the Supreme Court rejected the AGF’s contempt allegations against the Osun AG, noting that, instead, it was the AGF who committed contempt by withholding the funds.

Speaking during a statewide broadcast on Monday, Adeleke accused former Osun governor and current Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola, of supporting the former APC council chairmen to remain in office despite being removed by the courts.

Adeleke said that even if the APC-backed chairmen had not been sacked, their four-year tenure ended in October 2025.

“Despite these incontrovertible legal facts, they have continued to occupy the local government secretariats by brute force, with police protection allegedly acting on the instructions of former governor Gboyega Oyetola,” Adeleke said.

He explained that local government allocations are used mainly to pay the salaries of primary school teachers, nurses, health workers in the state’s 332 primary healthcare centres, local government staff, traditional councils, and retirees.

“Imagine the level of suffering these people who depend on local government statutory allocations for the payment of their salaries would have gone through if my government had not stepped in to borrow from the state government to pay the salaries of these workers over the last almost 12 months, with the exception of traditional council salaries,” he said.

“To raise the funds from the state government, many sacrifices had to be made. Allowances due to senior civil servants and political appointees had to be put on hold, causing great discomfort to these men and women and slowing some of the state’s ongoing projects.”

The governor said the state cannot continue to rely on borrowing to pay local government workers and appealed directly to President Tinubu to intervene.

“I therefore urge Mr president to protect the integrity of our democracy by rescuing Osun state local governments from the vice grip of those whose self-awarded tenure has lapsed,” Adeleke added.

KanyiDaily recalls that Governor Ademola Adeleke recently emerged as the Accord Party’s candidate for the 2026 governorship election.