In a curious twist of logic and law, a group of members of the House of Representatives from Osun State, elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), recently addressed an open letter to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR. Further to this, the Governor of Osun State has latched on this false premise to proclaim his willingness to lead an invasion of the local government secretariats across the state to seize power from constitutionally elected local government Chairmen and Councilors for his group of sit-at-home mis-adventurers.
In the letter by the PDP House of Representatives members, they urged the President not to release local government allocations to the 30 constitutionally recognized local government councils in Osun State. The group, while cloaking their appeal in a veneer of democratic concern, proceeded to distort the factual and judicial realities underpinning the existence and legitimacy of the present local government structure in the state.
At the heart of this controversy lies a fundamental disregard for constitutionalism, the supremacy of judicial pronouncements, and an attempt to leverage political partisanship over and above the rule of law. As citizens and stakeholders who hold dear the integrity of our democratic processes and legal institutions, it becomes imperative to set the record straight and dismantle the deliberate misrepresentations peddled by the said open letter.
The legal and constitutional landscape
It is an incontrovertible fact that the 30 local government councils currently operating in Osun State are the product of democratic elections duly conducted on the 15th of October, 2022. The elections produced Chairmen and Councilors under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in accordance with the requirements of Section 7(1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), which mandates that local governments must be democratically elected in order to receive statutory allocations.
This position was further cemented by the Supreme Court in AG Federation v. AG Abia State & Ors. (2024) LPELR-62576(SC), where the apex court unequivocally stated that no allocations should be made to unelected, caretaker, or otherwise non-democratically instituted local governments.
This judgment underscores the constitutional sanctity of democratic local government structures and their entitlement to fiscal allocations directly from the Federation Account.
Despite this clear constitutional and judicial framework, the group of PDP lawmakers have sought to impugn the legitimacy of the APC-led local councils, basing their arguments on a now-overruled judgment delivered by the Federal High Court in Osogbo in Suit No. FHC/OS/CS/94/2022.
That court, on 25th November 2022, nullified the local government elections, prompting the newly inaugurated Governor of Osun State, Senator Ademola Adeleke, to summarily dissolve the councils and declare their seats vacant, an action undertaken even before the affected Chairmen and Councilors could exhaust their rights of appeal.
Judicial clarity restored
This precipitate action was soon tested on appeal, and the scales of justice were rightfully restored. On the 10th of February, 2025, the Court of Appeal delivered a landmark judgment which unequivocally nullified the decision of the Federal High Court and allowed the appeal filed by the APC in its entirety. This judgment reinstated the APC-elected Chairmen and Councilors and affirmed their legitimacy and tenure, which runs until February 2028.
Rather than abide by this subsisting and binding appellate judgment, the Osun State PDP-led government purportedly held fresh local government elections on the 20th of February, 2025, in blatant defiance of the Court of Appeal’s judgment. It is to this unconstitutional exercise and its so-called “winners” that the PDP legislators now urge the President to channel local government allocations, an act that would amount to rewarding impunity and undermining the rule of law.
To compound the obfuscation, the group has latched onto an obiter remark made by Justice Omoleye, JCA, in a concurring judgment delivered on the 13th of June, 2025, in a sister case.
While the lead judgment of the Court was clear and refused to reopen the settled matter, noting that such an attempt would amount to the appellate court sitting on appeal over its own judgment, Justice Omoleye made an erroneous comment that appeared to recognize the PDP’s February 2025 elections.
However, legal jurisprudence is settled that only the lead judgment of a court constitutes the binding decision; all concurring or dissenting opinions, deviating from the lead judgment, no matter how well articulated, remain obiter dicta and have no force of law.
Indeed, the Court of Appeal itself demonstrated judicial awareness of this position by refusing to relist the appeal, warning against judicial inconsistency and reaffirming its earlier decision of February 10, 2025, as the prevailing law.
This is further supported by the informed opinion of the Honourable Attorney-General of the Federation, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, who, in his capacity as the chief legal adviser to the Federal Government, reiterated that the lawful Chairmen and Councillors in Osun State are those elected on October 15, 2022, and reinstated by the Court of Appeal judgment of February 10, 2025.
*Why constitutionalism and due process must prevail*
Democracy is not merely a matter of electoral competition; it is first and foremost a system of governance rooted in the rule of law, respect for institutions, and fidelity to constitutional norms. The moment political actors, under the guise of partisan fervor, begin to challenge final judicial pronouncements by ill-informed open letters or substitute personal preferences for constitutional mandates, the fabric of the state begins to tear.
Constitutionalism demands that once courts of competent jurisdiction, especially the appellate courts, have spoken, all parties, irrespective of political affiliation, must abide by the decision except to go on further appeal where such right exists. It is not a matter of convenience or choice.
To do otherwise is to invite anarchy and to erode public confidence in the judiciary.
Due process is not a procedural luxury; it is the lifeline of liberty. When lawfully elected officials are removed without exhausting the judicial process, or when a valid appellate decision is ignored in favour of unilateral action, the democratic experiment suffers.
The rule of law becomes subservient to the rule of men, and the very ideals we claim to cherish as a nation are betrayed.
Moreover, the deliberate misrepresentation of judicial decisions by elected lawmakers is not only a disservice to their constituents but a dangerous precedent that threatens separation of powers. The judiciary must remain the impartial arbiter in our democracy, and its decisions must be obeyed, not politicized or twisted.
A call for executive action in defence of democracy
Given the above, the call by the PDP lawmakers urging President Tinubu to withhold allocations to the duly elected local government councils in Osun State is not only misguided but fundamentally unconstitutional. It represents a reckless distortion of established facts and a disregard for the authority of the judiciary.
We therefore, urge His Excellency, the President, to remain guided by the supremacy of the Constitution and the unambiguous pronouncement of the Court of Appeal.
The appropriate course of action is to direct the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and relevant financial authorities to ensure that statutory allocations due to the 30 local governments in Osun State are disbursed to the accounts legitimately operated by the Chairmen and Councillors elected on the 15th of October, 2022, and reinstated by the appellate court on the 10th of February, 2025.
This is not just a matter of political alignment; it is a litmus test of our collective commitment to the rule of law. The Chairmen and Councillors in question remain the lawful stewards of their local governments, with tenures are subsisting until February 2028. Any deviation from this position would amount to the erosion of constitutional order and a violation of democratic sanctity.
Conclusion
Let it be said, and unequivocally so, that the current local government structure in Osun State is legal, legitimate, and judicially affirmed. The open letter addressed to the President by some Osun PDP legislators is an unfortunate exercise in political revisionism, steeped in factual misrepresentation and bereft of constitutional merit.
The time has come to rise above petty partisanship and reaffirm our commitment to the tenets of democratic governance. It is only when the laws of the land are obeyed and the decisions of the courts are respected that democracy can flourish and justice can be said to be done. Anything short of this is an invitation to chaos, one which Nigeria, at this stage of her democratic journey, cannot afford to entertain.
Let constitutionalism reign. Let due process triumph. Let the will of the people, expressed through lawful and democratically elected institutions, be honoured. And let it be on record that I have played my little part to set the record straight.
Kunle Adegoke, SAN
Notary Public
