The Federal Government has released the withheld six-month allocations for the state’s local government areas, the All Progressives Congress branch in Osun State confirmed on Sunday.
However, the APC disputed that the money was transferred into the personal bank accounts of council chairmen who were chosen in October 2022 on the party’s platform.
According to the statement, the money was sent “into the local government councils’ accounts.”
The ruling PDP, however, insisted that the APC reveal the specifics of the accounts into which the cash were deposited, claiming that it was unaware of the transfer.
The PDP questioned how the federal government would transfer the money into bank accounts that the state’s auditor general, local government auditor general, and local government ministry were unaware of.
The National Union of Local Government Employees accused the Federal Government of unlawfully giving the APC the withheld six-month allocation, which sparked the conflict between the two parties.
NULGE Chairman Dr. Nathaniel Ogungbangbe spoke on behalf of the union on Sunday, stating that the union had verified that, in spite of ongoing legal proceedings, the Federal Government had transferred the March–August 2025 allocations into accounts that the APC chairmen and council members had unlawfully formed.
He especially accused Babatunde Ogunjimi, the Federation’s accountant general, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), and Wale Edun, the minister of finance, of abusing their positions by enabling the release.
“We have it on good authority that these three Federal Government principal officers have disbursed the March 2025–August 2025 allocations to the illegal bank accounts opened by APC chairmen and council members who were fired by the court,” Ogungbangbe stated.
“This development is extremely concerning and frightening to us.
Paying local government funds into politicians’ illegally opened, privately held bank accounts is absurd, out of the ordinary, and unheard of in Nigerian public administration history.
On May 15, 2025, a Federal High Court ordered the parties to maintain the status quo. According to Ogungbangbe, the Central Bank of Nigeria acknowledged this order, but initially refused to pay.
“The Attorney General cannot act as the Supreme Court by overturning the Court of Appeal’s decision, which upheld the Federal High Court’s decision to fire the APC politicians. The Attorney-General is not above the law,” he declared.
He also accused the APC of wanting to disrupt the state.
“Their ultimate goal is to cause anarchy and use it to call on the President to declare a State of Emergency in the state so that they could loot our resources,” he stated, adding that council workers would not return to duty positions until the matter was resolved.
But the Osun APC refuted the charges, branding them as lies aimed to promote the ruling Peoples Democratic Party.
“It is not true that the said federal allocations are paid into the account of any of our local government council chairmen or any of the APC members or chieftains, but into the local government councils’ accounts,” the APC stated in a statement signed by its spokesperson, Kola Olabisi.
Olabisi went on to say that NULGE lacked the power to interpret judicial decisions.
As a party that supports the rule of law, we wish to make it very clear that the NULGE is not responsible for interpreting any court rulings. Since there is no documentation indicating that it was appealed, the Court of Appeal’s decision from February 10, 2025, which restored the APC local government council chairmen and their council members, remains in effect.
He charged that the NULGE leadership was behaving as an extension of Governor Ademola Adeleke and pursuing self-serving goals.
In response to the APC’s admission and revelation, Osun PDP demanded that the party provide the accounts into which the allocations were deposited as well as the names of the account signatories.
The PDP called the transfer of monies to the APC a crime against the people of Osun State in a statement released on Sunday by its chairman, Sunday Bisi.
The APC should “come clean before the people of Osun State by publicly disclosing the exact bank accounts into which the local government allocations were paid and the signatories to those accounts. The APC should also disclose the amount in each of the accounts,” the PDP said, instead of criticising NULGE.
“We require these details because all 30 local governments’ statutory officers, who ought to be aware of the payment, are unaware of it,” the PDP stated. These officers oversee all of the local governments’ accounting. None of their local government accounts have shown any money. Furthermore, neither the state accountant general nor the local government auditor general nor the ministry of local governments are aware of the payments or the source of the funds.
The APC should be reminded by the Osun PDP that insulting labour unions won’t alter the fact that Osun residents are demanding answers. The questions are straightforward: who are the signatories and into which accounts were the allocations paid?
“Or we will conclude that the APC and its leaders have staged the greatest heist in Nigerian history by diverting over six months of allocations of all local governments in Osun State,” the PDP declared, urging the APC to react immediately.
The PDP promises Osun State residents that accountability and openness would remain the cornerstones of public fund management under Governor Ademola Adeleke. “This resolve will not be undermined by any amount of blackmail or intimidation from the APC,” Bisi continued.
