The Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has firmly dismissed allegations that reinstated local government chairmen and councillors are pursuing tenure extension, clarifying that the only matter before the court is a request for judicial interpretation of the lawful tenure stipulated under existing state legislation.
The party, however, accused the Osun State Government of making renewed attempts to relitigate issues already conclusively settled by the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. It alleged that the government is seeking fresh court orders in a bid to undermine subsisting judgments that reinstated APC-elected local government officials across the state.
Addressing a press conference in Osogbo on Monday, the APC Director of Media and Information in Osun State, Mogaji Kola Olabisi, expressed concern over what he described as calculated moves by the state government to return to the courts despite clear judicial pronouncements. He warned that such actions pose a serious threat to the integrity of the judicial process and democratic governance.
Olabisi disclosed that the party had received information that the state government was instituting new suits at the Federal High Court and a Magistrate Court, even though the issues involved had already been determined by superior courts. According to him, these fresh filings amount to an abuse of court process and a deliberate attempt to circumvent the authority of higher courts.
He alleged that between February and December 2025, the PDP/Accord Party-led administration initiated more than ten lawsuits across different courts and jurisdictions over the same local government matter. Olabisi described the development as a blatant refusal to respect the rule of law and a direct challenge to the sanctity of the Supreme Court’s judgment delivered on December 5, 2025.
The APC spokesperson stressed that judgments in Appeal No. CA/AK/15/2025 and Supreme Court Suit No. SC/CV/773/2025 had conclusively resolved all disputes relating to local government council allocations and the subsistence of APC chairmen and councillors in Osun State. He maintained that there was no legal basis for reopening the matter in any court.
Olabisi further clarified that the reinstated chairmen and councillors had not instituted any suit seeking tenure elongation. Rather, he said, their sole action before the court was to seek a determination on whether their tenure should run for three years from the date of their statutory first sitting, as provided by Osun State law.
He revealed that the APC had petitioned the National Judicial Council (NJC) over previous instances of conflicting court orders and appealed to the council to act decisively to prevent further interim rulings on issues already settled. According to him, timely intervention by the NJC would help preserve public confidence in the judiciary and discourage civil unrest.
Also speaking, the Chairman of Ifedayo Local Government and Chairman of the Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON), Osun State chapter, Hon. Samuel Idowu Abiodun, lamented that the persistent procurement of court orders from multiple courts had become a major obstacle to effective local government administration. He described the trend as a significant impediment to development, noting that it had crippled governance at the grassroots level.
Abiodun decried the state government’s resort to courts outside Osun, including those in Oyo State and Abuja, despite the presence of competent courts within the state. He warned that the reported move to approach a Magistrate Court after losing at the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court levels amounted to a deliberate strategy to stall development and frustrate local councils in Osun State.
