The Supreme Court has reserved judgment in the case filed by the Osun State Government against the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) over the alleged withholding of local government funds belonging to the state.
A seven-member panel of Justices of the apex court, led by Justice Uwani Abba-Aji, reserved judgment after hearing arguments from both parties. The court stated that the date for the judgment would be communicated to the parties in due course.
In the suit, the Attorney-General of Osun State is seeking an order from the Supreme Court compelling the AGF to immediately release statutory allocations to the chairmen and councillors of the 30 local government areas of the state.
Counsel to the plaintiff, Musibau Adetunbi, who invoked the Supreme Court’s original jurisdiction, based his argument on a letter from the AGF recognizing the disputed All Progressives Congress (APC) local government chairmen. He also sought an order restraining the AGF from further withholding or seizing monthly allocations and revenues due to the local governments, which he said have democratically elected officials.
The Osun Attorney-General contended that the AGF acted wrongly by recognizing the APC chairmen while the matter was still pending before the court. He further argued that the election that brought in the APC officials as local government chairmen had been nullified by a Federal High Court and that the decision was upheld by the Court of Appeal in Abuja.
While presenting the plaintiff’s case, Adetunbi urged the panel to uphold his submissions and grant all the reliefs sought by the Osun State Government.
However, counsel to the Attorney-General of the Federation, Akin Olujimi, SAN, opposed the suit and called for its dismissal.
Olujimi argued that the plaintiff lacked the legal standing to bring the matter before the Supreme Court and that the apex court had no jurisdiction to entertain the case in its current form. He maintained that the suit failed to disclose any valid cause of action, stressing that “the tenure of the disputed council chairmen will run till October 22nd this year, and the proper thing is for the funds to be released to them to run their councils.”
He also accused the Osun Attorney-General of “abuse of court process by filing multiple cases in different courts on the same subject involving the same parties.”
Olujimi therefore urged the Supreme Court to reject all the reliefs sought by the plaintiff and dismiss the case.
