The Attorney General has urged the Supreme Court to mandate Osun to return seven months’ worth of local government allocations.
The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, called on the Supreme Court to mandate the Osun State Government to return seven months’ worth of local government allocations to the Minister of Finance.
The request was included in a reply submitted by Fagbemi’s lawyer, Chief Akin Olujimi SAN, in response to a lawsuit initiated by the government through its attorney general.
Osun has filed a lawsuit against the Attorney General of the Federation as the only defendant, claiming that the Federal Government did not disburse the statutory allocation owed to its 30 local government councils for March 2025.
In the legal case designated as SC/CV/379/2025, the state government asserted that upon questioning the Ministry of Finance regarding the pending allocation, the Minister of Finance, Wale Odun, purportedly responded that he was following instructions from the Attorney General of the Federation.
The Attorney General refuted the allegation and questioned the validity of the lawsuit. He accused the state government of showing contempt by purportedly not complying with a Supreme Court ruling from July 11, 2024.
Fagbemi contended that Osun incorrectly depended on the 2004 Supreme Court case of AG Lagos State v. AG Federation, where the court mandated the release of withheld funds to Lagos State.
In a counter-affidavit submitted by Taye Oloyede, the President’s Special Assistant, the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) maintained that neither he nor the Minister of Finance directed the withholding of funds meant for Osun’s local government.
The Attorney General of the Federation raised a preliminary objection consisting of five main points, asserting that: “The plaintiff is not entitled to be heard due to contempt. The plaintiff has no right of appeal against the Supreme Court’s decision. The case does not present a genuine dispute to trigger the court’s original jurisdiction under Section 232(1) of the Constitution. The plaintiff has no locus standi to sue on behalf of local governments.
Only LGs—not state governments—can seek redress for unpaid allocations. The AGF stressed that Osun State had improperly appointed itself as a ‘watchdog’ over LG funds, despite having no authority to litigate on their behalf.
“If any LG has been wrongly deprived of its funds, it is the council itself—not the state government—that has the right to sue.”
