The lingering native authorities disaster in Osun State has taken a brand new dimension as reinstated executives of the All Progressives Congress, APC, have sued the Federal Authorities, the Inspector Basic of Police, and the Osun State Authorities over their tenure.
The officers, who have been elected in October 2022, have been initially eliminated by Governor Ademola Adeleke after a Federal Courtroom nullified their election. Nevertheless, they have been reinstated by the Courtroom of Attraction Division in February 2025.
Regardless of the appellate court docket’s ruling, members of the Peoples Democratic Social gathering, PDP, have been sworn in as council executives following the native authorities elections held on February 22, 2025, making a scenario the place each events laid declare to manage.
Since then, members of the Nigeria Union of Native Authorities Staff, NULGE, in Osun launched into strike, whereas federal allocations to native councils remained frozen, deepening the standoff.
In a contemporary swimsuit filed on the Federal Excessive Courtroom, Osogbo, with swimsuit quantity FHC/OS/CS/147/2025, counsel, Muhideen Adeoye, representing Saheed Onibonokuta and 7 different native authorities chairmen, sought an extension of their tenure till 19 February 2028.
The defendants within the swimsuit are listed because the Lawyer Basic of the Federation, the Inspector Basic of Police, the Osun State Governor, the Lawyer Basic and Commissioner for Justice, the Osun State Unbiased Electoral Fee, OSSIEC, and the Osun State Home of Meeting.
The claimants argued that “their tenure, beneath the Structure and Osun State legal guidelines, ought to start solely from the date they have been inaugurated and assumed workplace in February 2025, not from October 2022, after they have been elected however prevented from taking workplace.”
They additional maintained that, “the conduct of contemporary native authorities elections in February 2025, whereas their tenure was nonetheless subsisting, was illegal and an infringement on their constitutional proper to a full time period.”
Of their claims, they sought “a declaration that OSSIEC lacked authority to challenge notices of polls, conduct elections, or swear in new council members in the course of the pendency of their tenure.”
They described all steps taken by state authorities since 22 February 2025 to impose new council executives as unlawful, illegal, invalid, unconstitutional, null and void.
The claimants additionally urged the court docket to “declare that any interpretation by the Lawyer Basic of the Federation curbing their tenure to finish in October 2025 was past his authorized powers and due to this fact unconstitutional and null.”
They prayed “the court docket to direct the Lawyer Basic of the Federation and the Inspector Basic of Police to supply safety to ensure their continued keep in workplace till February 2028, when their three-year tenure would expire naturally.”
They additional requested the court docket “to restrain Governor Ademola Adeleke, the Osun State Lawyer Basic, the State Home of Meeting, and OSSIEC from eradicating them or interfering with their tenure in October 2025 or any time earlier than February 2028.”
In line with the claimants, any try to forcefully oust them earlier than the pure expiration of their tenure would quantity to an abuse of due course of and a violation of their constitutional rights.”
The authorized tussle marks a contemporary twist within the protracted native authorities administration disaster in Osun, which has pitted the Osun APC, Osun PDP and the Osun State Authorities towards one another since 20
