Osun LG: NULGE alleges AGF of diverting hearing to Abuja

The Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees, NULGE, has raised concerns over an alleged plot by the Attorney General of the Federation of attempting to divert a case involving Osun local government allocations to an Abuja court during vacation.

It would be recalled that the Osun State Attorney General, Oluwole Jimi-Bada, had approached the court seeking four reliefs that include restraining the CBN, Accountant General of the Federation and the Attorney General of the Federation from opening or maintaining accounts for the chairmen that were elected in the October 12, 2022 election, which had only candidates of the All Progressives Congress participating.

Speaking at the Ministry of Local Government and Cheiftency Affairs, Abere, Osun State, the President of NULGE in the state, Nathaniel Ogungbangbe, said that the AGF was served by court bailiffs 16 May, 2025, as against claims by his that it had not been served with court processes.

In his words, “as you are aware, there is an ongoing legal battle concerning the disbursement of Osun State Local Government Funds, the information at our disposal has it that the Attorney-General of Osun State had approached the Federal High Court to restrain the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Accountant-General of the Federation and others from diverting these funds to the sacked All Progressives Congress (APC) Chairmen and Councilors, whose removal has already been affirmed by competent Courts of Law.

“We smell a plot to use the Abuja vacation court to give through the backdoor what the Court of Appeal has already denied. But we say today: Justice cannot be ambushed. The people of Osun State will not allow their resources to be stolen under the cover of judicial manoeuvres.

“The funds in question belong to the Local Governments and by extension, to the ordinary people of Osun State. Hearing this matter at its originally scheduled time wil not deprive our people of their money.

“But rushing it now, during vacation, raises suspicious that certain powerful interests are desperate to subvert the will of the people and the judgment of the Courts.”

However, Ogungbangbe reaffirmed the union’s commitment to respecting rule of law, stressing the they are not interested in who contols the local government.

In his words, “We are not interested in who controls the local government areas, but the truth be said, we are in Nigeria where we believe in rule of law and it must be respected by whosoever.

“There is a procedure by which we access fund of the local government and that procedure must be followed to the latter, that is what we are interested in.

“We are not on strike, we stayed away for the sake of our safety, you remember February 17th 2025. We should all follow due process, there is no sacrifice that is too much for peace, until that peace is attained we will stay away.”

He called on the judiciary to stand firm, to resist pressure and to refuse this application for vacation hearing.