Steer Clear, We’re Constitutionally Autonomous to Manage our Councils, Osun LG Chairmen Fire Back at Speaker

Yinka Kolawole in Osogbo

The Forum of the Council Chairmen in Osun State, under the umbrella of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), has warned members of the Osun State House of Assembly, led by Hon. Wale Egbedun, to steer clear of the local government administration in the state.

The local government council chairmen reaffirmed their constitutional autonomy to manage their councils without interference, warning the state government. particularly the members of the state House of Assembly, to come to term with the reality in respect of the Supreme Court judgment on the Local Government Financial Autonomy.

The chairmen debunked all the spurious allegations levelled against them by the state Assembly, maintaining that no constitutional infraction was committed as their actions and inactions had been governed and backed by the law.

This is even as the council chairmen warned Governor Ademola Adeleke’s government to desist from pettiness in dragging ex-state Governor, Gboyega Oyetola’s name into his ‘self-inflicted failure’ recorded in the last 37 months of being at the helm of affairs.

Addressing a press conference on behalf of the council chairmen yesterday at the APC State Secretariat in Osogbo, the state ALGON Chairman, Hon. Samuel Idowu Abiodun, lampooned the state House of Assembly for meddling into the issues already settled by the Supreme Court on the finances of the local governments, noting that no number of rants, hues and cries from the Assembly can stop the full implementation of the Supreme Court judgment.

In the ALGON chairman’s address titled: ‘Gibberish of the Osun state House of Assembly over the local government councils: An indication of the extent of depth of dungeon into which Osun State has sunk under the Governor Ademola Adeleke administration’, Abiodun berated the state government for ‘running from pillar to pole’ and instituting over 14 lawsuits up to the Supreme Court to cynically thwart the smooth operation of the councils.

He accused Governor Adeleke’s government of frustrating the local government administration, alleging that “having failed in its inordinate efforts to superimpose his PDP members illegally selected under ‘the ruse of the February 22, 2025, local government elections’ coupled with the reality of potency of the Supreme Court judgment of July 2024 that has granted financial autonomy to the 774 local government councils in Nigeria, starring at his face.

“Contrary to the invented facts contained in the press conference statement issued by Hon. Wale Egbedun over the alleged diversion of the local government funds, it is emphatically stated that, except at the state government level since 2022 till date, no such unfounded diversion has occurred ever since assumption of office in February, 2025 by our chairmen and councillors across all the 30 local government councils of the state.

“It is unfortunate to note that Egbedun surreptitiously skipped the aspect of his state government’s unwholesome instigation of workers at the local government councils to unreasonably abstain from work since February 16, 2025, till January 2026.

“The unprecedented ugly development that completely crippled governance at the grassroots for almost a year and a similitude of what the state government under the administration of the same Egbedun did to the state judiciary for more than seven months within a fraction of three wasteful years of his administration just because someone is power drunk and does not want to see the face of the head of the judiciary.

“Following the cantankerous refusal of the partisan workers to go to work for almost a year, the councils under our administration, devised a lawful means by which bank accounts were opened for the local government councils so as not to allow the entire local government system for which the federal government has hugely laboured for its constitutional survival to perish in Osun State as being wished and planned by the same Governor Ademola Adeleke government.

“All procedure legally required was observed by the councils and the United Bank for Africa just to ensure there was no infraction of the law. Members of the public must be informed that the process took more than seven months to become successful,” the ALGON chairman stated.

He slammed the state Assembly for hurriedly enacting a law in December 2025 to cushion the effect of the judicial losses the Adeleke government suffered at the Supreme Court on December 5, 2025, over the same allocations of the local government councils in Osun State.       

He said: “The attacks are nothing but subtle jabs targeted at the presidency and the Supreme Court for putting into effect the financial autonomy for the local government councils to bring governance closer to the grassroots.

“Little wonder the same House of Assembly hurriedly enacted a law in December 2025 to cushion the effect of the judicial losses they meritoriously suffered at the Supreme Court on December 5, 2025, over the same allocations of the local government councils in Osun State. 

“Egbedun ought to have known that such vituperation from the hallowed chambers of the law-making arm of the government is not only embarrassing to the entire people of Osun State but also indicative of a record low standard into which the state has pitiably fallen under the administration of Governor Adeleke.”

“For the umpteenth time, there is no illegality being perpetrated at the local government council level, and as such, all the allegations of the Speaker are debunked and outright denied as cheap propaganda to have unlawful access to the local government funds,”  the Osun ALGON chairman clarified.