Osun LG funds: Fireworks at Abuja court as Osun govt accuses Chief Judge of favouring AGF
Osun LG funds: Fireworks at Abuja court as Osun govt accuses Chief Judge of favouring AGF
By Ndukaku Ihe
There were legal fireworks on Monday at the Federal High Court, Abuja where the Osun state government challenged the transfer of a suit from the Osogbo, Osun state division of the court to the Abuja Division.
The suit is seeking to restrain the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from opening accounts for the chairmen elected on the platform of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in 2022 whom the state government affirmed have been sacked by the same Federal High Court.
Earlier this year, the Federal High Court sitting in Osogbo had ordered parties in the case to maintain the status quo while the case was adjourned till November 2025. It was this case that has now been moved to Abuja for “expeditious hearing” by a vacation judge.
When the matter came up on Monday, before Justice Emeka Nwite sitting as a vacation judge of the Federal High Court, Abuja, Musibau Adetunbi, SAN representing the Osun State Attorney General, Oluwole Jimi-Bada, who filed the case on behalf of the state government, told the court that the plaintiff filed two motions on notice, challenging the jurisdiction of the Abuja court to hear the suit transferred from the Osogbo, Osun State division of the Federal High Court on the orders of the Chief Judge (CJ) of the court, Justice John Tsoho.
The state government is asking the court to set “aside the purported fiat said to have been given at the instance of the Chief Judge of the court contained in a letter dated 21st August, 2025 signed by one Joshua Ibrahim Aji, a Special Assistant to the Chief Judge.
The legal grounds of the motion on notice filed by the Osun State government, included the fact that the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court failed to obey his own directive on how and where vacation cases would be heard.
“By a combined reading of the provisions of Order 46 Rule 5 of the Rules of this Honourable Court, more particularly Rules 5(2) and 8, an application for urgent hearing shall be made by summons in chamber; however, it is on record that none of the parties in this suit has made such an application as at the said 21st of August, 2025 when the Honourable Chief Judge gave the directives as contained in the letter of 21st August, 2025.
“By the vacation notice issued on the 28th May, 2025, our noble Lord, the Chief Judge of this Honourable Court, specifically stated thus: “The Court will not be completely shut down during this period, as such, the three core Divisions of the Court will be open to the general public to attend TO ONLY MATTERS OF EXTREME URGENCY. Consequently, the Litigating public will be at liberty to approach ONLY the under-listed functional Courts located nearest to them. i. Abuja; ii. Lagos; iii. Port-Harcourt”
“Obvious from the above is that the only vacation Judge who could have heard this suit is the vacation Judge who is sitting in Lagos and not Abuja.
“The Honourable Attorney General of the Federation who caused the case file of this suit to be forcefully moved to Abuja, and the Honourable Chief Judge of this Honourable Court cannot claim ignorance of the said Vacation Notice of 28th May, 2025. Indeed, the attention of his Lordship and the Honourable Attorney General was drawn to this fact in the Plaintiff’s solicitor letter dated 14th August, 2025.
“The Honourable Chief Judge, who at his instance the said letter of 21st August, 2025 was written, is not just a judicial officer of this Honourable Court but the number 1 judicial officer of this Honourable Court. Thus, His Lordship’s oath of office demands that he should, at all times, hold the scale of justice evenly between parties across the divide.
“The current Honourable Attorney General of the Federation (HAGF) at whose instance the letter for transfer of the case file was written, was, prior to his appointment as the HAGF, was the lead counsel in a petition filed by the former Governor Gboyega Oyetola and the All Progressives Congress (APC) against the incumbent Governor of Osun State and the PDP. He was equally the lead counsel in the Presidential Election Petition filed by the PDP and its candidate against the incumbent President of Nigeria and his political party, the APC. All these are facts within public knowledge and which the Honourable Chief Judge ought to have taken judicial notice of.
“By an affidavit of urgency filed on behalf of the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation and a letter written on his behalf by Chief Akin Olujimi, CON, SAN, the Honourable Attorney General made a categorical statement that the Chairmen and Councillors elected under the platform of APC are the ones running the affairs of Local Government Councils in Osun State and that failure to hear this matter within the vacation period would render the case nugatory. However, the learned senior counsel to the Plaintiff, in a letter written to the Honourable Chief Judge, stated unequivocally that failure to hear this suit during vacation would not render this suit nugatory and that the said purported APC Chairmen and Councillors are not the officials running the affairs of the Local Government Councils in Osun State.
“In the said letter of 21st August, 2025, His Lordship, the Honourable Chief Judge cast his lot with the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation when his Lordship stated that the case file be transferred to Abuja ‘in order to save it from becoming nugatory.’
“Obvious from the affidavit of urgency filed by the office of the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation, counter affidavit to the affidavit of urgency filed on behalf of the Plaintiff and letters written by learned senior counsel to parties across the divide is that the office of the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation deliberately created a self-induced urgency.
“From all the grounds stated above, and applying the doctrine of a reasonable man to the justice of this suit, it is obvious that a reasonable man is bound to come to the conclusion that the Honourable Chief Judge favours the 3rd Defendant to the detriment of the Plaintiff. Equally, a reasonable man is bound to come to the conclusion that the case file of this suit is being moved to Abuja for a purpose other than the purpose of justice,” the motion paper said.
According to the motion, the plaintiff seeks the setting aside of the fiat said to have been given at the instance of the CJ contained in a letter dated August 21 signed by his personal assistant, Joshua Ibrahim.
He also wants an order setting aside the directive of the CJ that the matter be heard by a vacation judge and that the court should decline jurisdiction to hear the matter during its annual vacation and returning of the case file back to the Osogbo judicial division of the Federal High Court.
Adetunbi said the second motion on notice, was for the discontinuance of the case against the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, who is the 3rd defendant in the suit, which has the CBN and Accountant General of the Federation as the 1st and 2nd defendants.
The motion said “sequel to the affidavit of urgency filed by the AGF on August 13, it became obvious that he is willing and at the verge of paying the allocation of the Constituent Local Government Councils of the plaintiff’s state to the illegal and sacked APC Chairmen and Councilors.
“Consequent on the above, the plaintiff is desirous of initiating and prosecuting a fresh suit against the 3rd defendant (AGF) at the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
“That, some of the facts, questions and issues to be tabled at the apex court against the AGF would be identical to the facts, questions and issues before the trial court in the instant suit and hence, the need to discontinue the suit against him.”
In another motion on notice filed on August 26, the plaintiff prayed the court for an order staying further proceedings in the suit pending the hearing and determination of the suit numbered SC/CV/773/2025 between the Attorney General of Osun state and the AGF at the Supreme Court.
One of the grounds of the motion is that “the AGF is not willing to obey, abide by or comply with valid and subsisting decision of the Court of Appeal but rather caused an affidavit of urgency to be filed before the court on August 13.”
The plaintiff said “the AGF’s letter of August 26 and the affidavit of urgency show that he is willing and at the verge of paying the allocation of the Constituents Local Government Councils of the plaintiff state to illegal and sacked APC Chairmen and Councilors.”
According to the plaintiff, “the brazen decision of the AGF necessitated him to approach the Supreme Court to determine the propriety or otherwise of the Federation’s action in paying statutory allocation of the Local Government Councils in Osun state to officials of the APC, who have been removed from office by a subsisting judgement of the trial court which was affirmed by the Court of Appeal in view of the position of the AGF in the affidavit of urgency that the purported APC elected Chairmen and Councilors are the ones running the affairs of the Local Government Councils in Osun and will be paid the said allocation, among others.”
According to the counsel to the plaintiff, “all the processes have been duly served on the defendants” a position which counsel to the AGF, Chief Akin Olujimi, SAN disputed, saying that, he had not been served with the motion on notice for the discontinuance of the plaintiff’s case against his client.
Olujimi, however, said even if the notice of discontinuance was duly served on him, it could not stop the proceedings of the day until the court made an order to that effect and added that such notice must be attached with an affidavit of service.
Counsel to the CBN, Dr. Muritala Abdulrasheed, SAN informed the court that the AGF wrote to the Chief Judge for the matter to be heard expeditiously by a vacation judge.
He told the Court that the first Defendant filed seven processes challenging the plaintiff’s motion for stay of proceedings, and against the motion challenging the administrative power of the CJ to transfer the matter from Osun to Abuja Division of the Federal High Court, among others.
On his part, counsel to the Accountant General of the Federation, Tajudeen Oladoja, SAN said, if the matter is not heard during the court’s vacation, it would become an academic exercise and prayed the court to hear all the processes filed in the matter together.
After listening to the submissions of counsel in the matter, the trial Judge, Justice Emeka Nwite adjourned the case till September 22, 2025 for hearing of all the applications filed in the matter.
The suit, which was filed on behalf of Osun State by the state Attorney General, Oluwole Jimi-Bada, seeks to restrain the CBN and the AGF from opening and maintaining accounts for the local government chairmen elected in October 2022 under the APC.
The chairmen in question were elected in an election that only featured candidates from the APC.
Specifically, the plaintiff wants “an interim injunction restraining the defendants from opening, operating, or maintaining local government accounts in favour of the Chairmen and Councillors who have been sacked or removed from office by a subsisting judgment of the Federal High Court.”
Another relief seeks to restrain the CBN and Accountant General of the Federation “from disbursing allocations to the sacked APC Chairmen and Councillors.” END
