THE Osun State government, yesterday, officially wrote to the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, urging his office to give due recognition to the newly elected local government chairmen and councillors elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as the legitimate representatives of the council areas.
The letter by the Secretary to the State Government, Teslim Igbalaye was also sent to the Auditor-General of the Federation, Shamsedeen Babatunde, and Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Mr Yemi Cardoso to intimate them and financial institutions to engage exclusively with the newly elected local government officials following a subsisting court judgment that removed the previous council chairmen.
The letter, dated March 7, reads: “Prior to the conduct of the 22nd of February, 2025 election, a Local Government election had earlier been conducted in Osun State on October 15, 2022, but the said election was set aside, and the purportedly elected Chairmen were removed from office by a subsisting Judgment of the Federal High Court in Suit No.: FHC/OS/CS/103/2022 between Action Peoples Party, APP, vs Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and six ors. It is also worthy of note that the resultant appeal lodged against this judgment of the Federal High Court was dismissed by the Court of Appeal on January 15, 2025.
“Consequent on the above, we humbly implore your good office to only recognize and deal with the Local Government Chairmen and Councillors, who were validly elected into office by virtue of the fresh election conducted on February 22, 2025, as the purported Chairmen and Councillors elected in the year 2022 have been validly removed from office by a subsisting Judgment of the Federal High Court.”
Osun APC kicks
Reacting, the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Osun State berated the Osun State government over the letters, saying the letters only introduced “illegally selected chairmen and councillors of the 30 local government council areas in the state.”
The APC, in a statement by Mr Kola Olabisi, said: “We want to put it on record and for the attention of the Attorney-General of the Federation, Accountant-General of the Federation and the Central Bank Governor that the introduced PDP chieftains by the Secretary to the State Government, Mr Teslim Igbalaye, are impersonators as there was no election where such characters were elected.
“There were no vacancies for the conduct of any election given that the Court of Appeal had in its judgement of February 10, 2025, reinstated local government executives elected in October 2022 but which were sacked by Governor Ademola.”
