Nigeria’s Supreme Court has thrown out a lawsuit brought by Osun State against the Federal Government over months of frozen local council allocations.
In a 6-1 majority ruling delivered on Friday, the apex court declared that the Osun State Attorney-General lacked the legal standing to file the case on behalf of the state’s 30 local government areas.
“Only the duly elected chairmen of the local governments have the authority to initiate or defend actions concerning their statutory allocations,” Justice Mohammed Idris said while reading the lead judgment.
The case (SC/CV/775/2025) stemmed from a bitter political row that began when the Federal High Court nullified the October 2022 local government election won by APC candidates.
Fresh elections held on 22 February 2025 produced new winners who were sworn in the following day.
Osun State had asked the Supreme Court to compel the Attorney-General of the Federation to release all withheld funds directly to the new councils and to stop further deductions.
The court agreed that the Federal Government acted unlawfully by freezing the money.
“Withholding statutory allocations from democratically elected local councils amounts to a serious violation of the 1999 Constitution,” the majority judgment stated.
However, the justices ruled that the Osun Attorney-General overstepped his powers by suing without formal authorisation from the elected council chairmen.
“There is no evidence before us that the local government chairmen instructed or briefed the state Attorney-General to bring this action,” Justice Idris noted.
The court also dismissed contempt charges the Federal Government levelled against the Osun AG, turning the accusation back on the federation.
“It is the continued withholding of these funds that constitutes clear contempt of existing court orders,” the judgment read.
In a lone dissenting opinion, Justice Emmanuel Agim argued that state attorneys-general can lawfully protect local government interests in such matters.
“Denying grassroots councils their rightful revenue cripples development at the most critical level of governance,” Justice Agim warned.
With the suit dismissed on technical grounds, the newly elected local government chairmen in Osun State may now have to file fresh actions themselves to recover the blocked funds.
The ruling reinforces the financial autonomy of local governments while underscoring strict procedural rules on who can speak for them in court.