The ongoing battle for grassroots governance in Osun State took a litigious turn on Monday as the Forum of Council Chairmen, under the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), sent a stern warning to the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Hon. Wale Egbedun, to steer clear of local government administration.
Addressing a press conference at the APC State Secretariat in Osogbo, the State ALGON Chairman, Hon. Samuel Idowu Abiodun, asserted that the councils are constitutionally autonomous entities that do not fall under the Speaker’s management.
The impasse stems from recent allegations leveled by the State Assembly regarding the management of council funds.
Hon. Abiodun dismissed these claims as spurious arguing that the Assembly’s actions are an attempt to thwart the Supreme Court judgment on financial autonomy.
He maintained that no constitutional infractions have occurred, as the chairmen’s actions remain governed by the landmark July 2024 and December 2025 judicial rulings that granted the 774 local governments direct control over their allocations.
The ALGON Chairman further criticized the House of Assembly for hurriedly enacting a law in December 2025 which he claims was designed to cushion the effect of the state government’s legal losses at the Supreme Court.
According to the forum, the Speaker’s vituperations from the hallowed chambers are not only embarrassing to the state but signal a “record low standard” of legislative conduct.
The Chairmen vowed that no amount of pressure from the Assembly would stop the full implementation of the Supreme Court’s mandate on financial independence.
