Bugaje, Utomi, Ezekwesili, Others Fault Withholding Of Osun Council Funds

The Movement for Credible Elections (MCE) has condemned the withholding of statutory allocations due to the local governments of Osun State.

The group described the action as unlawful, immoral, and a dangerous abuse of federal power aimed at politically coercing a duly elected state government.

Leaders of the Steering Council of the newly launched MCE, include; Dr Usman Bugaje, Prof Pat Utomi, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, Dr Oby Ezekwesili, Barr Femi Falana, SAN, Amb Nkoyo Toyo, Hajia (Dr) Bilikisu Magoro, Comrade Ene Obi, Comrade Salisu Mohammed, Comrade Bala Zakka, among others.

Speaking on behalf of the Movement, its head of Secretariat, Che Olawale Okunniyi, in a statement, said federal government’s refusal to release the funds is a deliberate and calculated ploy to frustrate the Osun State Government and compel Governor Ademola Adeleke to join the bandwagon of ongoing coercive alliance with President Bola Tinubu’s All Progressives Congress (APC).

“This is not governance; this is blackmail. It is an unconscionable use of state power to starve the third tier of government of funds guaranteed by the Constitution, simply to achieve partisan political agenda of self perpetuation,” Okunniyi stated.

The MCE noted that the local government system is a constitutionally recognised autonomous tier of government and that statutory allocations to councils do not belong to the Federal Government or the ruling administration in the States but to the people at the grassroots.

According to the Movement, withholding these funds translates directly into unpaid salaries, crippled primary healthcare services, abandoned basic education responsibilities, and untold suffering of the ordinary citizens in Osun.

“It is both ironic and deeply disturbing,” Okunniyi said, “that the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is subjecting Osun State to the same treatment that Nigerians widely condemned when he was the Executive Governor of Lagos State under former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

What was wrong with such action then—unconstitutional, and oppressive—cannot suddenly become right today.”

The MCE warned that history is repeating itself in a most unfortunate way, stressing that the practice of withholding or manipulating local government allocations has long been denounced by democrats, the organized civil society, the courts and Tinubu himself during his tenure as Governor; as violation of constitutional democracy and democratic federalism, which Nigeria practices.

“It is unlawful and morally indefensible for an APC-led Federal Government to seize or withhold allocations meant for the third tier government in Osun State. Local government funds should not be tools for political bargaining, coercion or vindictive politics,” Okunniyi asserted.

MCE also berated President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for allowing local government councils in Osun State, under a constitutional democracy, to be subjected to illegal occupation by his party’s members as chairmen and councillors even when their so-called mandates were nullified by the Federal High Court sitting in Osogbo in November 2022, a decision that was subsequently upheld by the Court of Appeal on February 10 and reaffirmed on June 13, 2025 on the grounds that their elections were conducted in clear violation of the requirements of the law.

However, the MCE noted that in a brazen subversion of the rule of law and democratic order, the affected officials have refused to vacate the council secretariats, emboldened by partisan backing from the Police.

Furthermore, the MCE added, “having realised that their tenure had legally expired, the APC chairmen and councillors approached the Federal High Court seeking the elongation of their expired tenure, a case that is yet to be heard.

“The very act of seeking such an extension amounts to a clear admission, both in law and in fact, that whatever tenure they purported to have had has since expired.”

The Movement further cautioned that continuing on this path poses grave dangers to Nigeria’s democracy, the rule of law, and national cohesion. It warned that “normalising financial strangulation of states and local governments based on partisan schemes sets a precedence that could destabilise Nigeria’s democratic order.”

The MCE therefore called on the federal government of Nigeria to forthwith and without conditions release all withheld statutory allocations due to Osun State local governments and to immediately desist from actions that undermine constitutional governance and democratic survival of the country.

“We urge President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to rise above partisan pressures, act as the President of all Nigerians, and put an end to this coercive and anti-democratic practice. Democracy cannot survive where the Constitution is subordinated to party interests,” the statement concluded.