Stop Distorting Facts On Council Allocations, Party Tells Adeleke

Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has urged Governor Ademola Adeleke to stop whipping up sentiments by distorting facts and misleading the public on the true legal and administrative status of local government councils in the state and the issue of federal allocations.

The party in a press briefing addressed by its director of media and communication, Mogaji Kola Olabisi, on behalf of the state chairman, Sooko Tajudeen Lawal, in Osogbo on Wednesday, stated that the broadcast made on Monday by the governor on local government administration and federal government statutory allocations to local government was ill-conceived.

The governor, in the broadcast, accused the APC of illegally occupying local government secretariats across the state and urged the federal government to release the #130b in local government allocations to the appropriate quarters in Osun State.

In their response, the APC said the broadcast was built on misrepresentation, selective narration of facts, and a deliberate attempt to deflect responsibility for a crisis largely of his administration’s own making.

APC insisted that it is patently false to assert that the reinstated APC chairmen and councillors are “illegally occupying” local government secretariats because their return to office followed clear and subsisting judicial pronouncements.

The party stated that what the governor has consistently failed to disclose is that his administration and its allies are currently engaged in multiple suits across different courts, including actions against commercial banks, expressly aimed at preventing the release of statutory allocations to the reinstated APC local government officials.

“These litigations, not any act of the federal government, are the real impediments to the smooth flow of funds to the councils. The recent Supreme Court judgment has now placed this matter beyond doubt, finding that the governor’s continued posturing on behalf of local governments amounts to unwarranted interference and constitutional overreach.

“We also find it duplicitous that the governor once again resorted to scapegoating former Governor Gboyega Oyetola, now Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, for the evident governance deficits of his administration. Minister Oyetola’s record in office remains verifiable and enduring, and no amount of rhetorical diversion can erase that legacy”.

APC urged Governor Adeleke to rise above the politics of bitterness, recrimination, and divisive rhetoric, adding that leadership, especially at a time of heightened political sensitivity, demands restraint, balance, and a conscious effort to de-escalate tensions rather than inflame them.