Supreme Court rejects Osun’s bid to release withheld LG funds

The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a suit filed by the Osun State Government seeking to compel the Federal Government to release allocations withheld from the state’s local government areas.

In a split decision of six to one, a seven-member panel of the apex court held that the legal action initiated by the state’s Attorney General lacked competence.

Delivering the lead judgment, Justice Mohammed Idris said the local government councils (LGCs) of Osun State lacked the legal standing to invoke the Supreme Court’s original jurisdiction on behalf of the 30 councils. He noted that while the Supreme Court could act as a court of first instance in disputes between a state and the Federal Government, the councils themselves—being autonomous legal entities—were the proper parties to challenge the FG’s action.

Justice Idris also dismissed the state’s argument that the suit qualified as public interest litigation.

Although the court upheld a preliminary objection filed by the Attorney General of the Federation challenging the suit’s competence, it admonished the FG to fully implement its earlier judgment granting fiscal autonomy to all 774 local government areas nationwide.

Osun State had sought declarations that the AGF could not act contrary to previous rulings of the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal by withholding allocations, and requested that payments be made to sacked APC local government officials.

Counsel for Osun State, Musibau Adetunbi, SAN, argued that the AGF was attempting to “destroy the res (subject matter) by paying the money to one of the contending parties,” citing an earlier court order restraining the release of the funds.

The FG, however, contended that the state had failed to establish a cause of action, was seeking to frustrate the APC officials whose three-year term had expired, and that the plaintiff lacked locus standi while engaging in an abuse of judicial process.