Supreme Court Reserves Judgment In Osun Council Funds’ Suit

The Supreme Court has reserved its judgment in the suit filed by the Osun State government seeking to restrain the attorney-general of the federation (AGF) from releasing the withheld local government funds to the disputed chairmen elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Justice Uwani Aba’aji, who led the apex court’s panel, reserved the judgement on the matter after taking arguments from Musbau Adetumbi (SAN), who represented the Osun State attorney-general and Chief Akin Olujim (SAN), who stood for the AGF.

In the suit, the Osun attorney-general prayed the court for an order, directing the AGF to immediately release the statutory allocations to the chairmen and councillors validly elected for the 30 councils.

The plaintiff, who invoked the Supreme Court’s original jurisdiction based on a letter by AGF acknowledging the disputed APC chairmen, also sought an order stopping the justice minister from further withholding, suspending, or seizing monthly allocations and revenues standing to the credit of the constituent local governments, having democratically elected chairmen in place.

The grouse of the state government was that the AGF was wrong in his letter recognising APC chairmen when the matter was pending before the court of records.

He also predicated his case on the ground that the election that brought in the APC officials as had been nullified by a Federal High Court and upheld by the Court of Appeal in Abuja.

Adetumbi, who presented the case of the plaintiff, pleaded with the seven justices to uphold his arguments and grant all the reliefs sought by his client.

In his opposition, the AGF argued a preliminary objection where he urged the apex court to dismiss the case on various grounds.

Olujimi argued that the plaintiff lacked locus standing (legal power) to bring the case before the Supreme Court to invoke the original jurisdiction because the matter is between two political parties.

He also contended that the apex court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the suit because it was not competent to be presented directly to the apex court as done by the plaintiff.

The senior lawyer argued that the suit did not disclose any cause of action, adding that the tenure of the disputed council chairmen is still running until October 22 and that the proper thing was for the statutory allocation to be released to them to run the councils.

Similarly, he argued that Osun AG had abused court processes by filing cases in about seven high courts on the same subject with the same parties.

Therefore, he urged the court to refuse to grant the relief sought by the plaintiff and dismiss the suit.