Proceedings in the legal battle over the tenure of local government chairmen in Osun State were stalled on Wednesday after lawyers representing the All Progressives Congress (APC) failed to appear in court, prompting accusations by the state government that the opposition party is deliberately evading judicial scrutiny to prolong the local government crisis.
The suit, filed by the Osun State chapter of the APC at the Federal High Court in Osogbo, seeks judicial backing for what the party describes as a continuation of the tenure of its local government chairmen.
However, when the matter came up for hearing on January 28, 2026, none of the party’s listed lawyers, including three Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs), was present in court.
The court subsequently adjourned the case to March 4, 2026.
Reacting to the development, the Osun State Government described the absence of APC lawyers as an intentional act aimed at frustrating the resolution of the prolonged local government imbroglio.
In a statement issued by the Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Oluomo Kolapo Alimi, the government accused the APC of running away from a case it had filed and has been citing as justification for its continued occupation of council secretariats.
Alimi said the party’s conduct confirmed its alleged strategy of delay.
He stated, “It is in the public domain that, in order to carry on with their illegality, they claimed they filed a case at the Federal High Court in Osogbo for tenure elongation but today they ran away from the same case.”
He further accused the APC of misrepresenting the nature of the suit, noting that the party had alternated between calling it a request for “tenure elongation” and “tenure determination,” which he described as “clearly bizarre.”
According to the commissioner, the APC also failed to take procedural steps to advance the case after filing it. He said the party did not mobilise court bailiffs to serve processes on other defendants, adding that it was the counsel to the Osun State Government who facilitated service of the documents.
“Who is then guilty of undue delay?” Alimi queried.
He also recalled that the local government elections conducted on October 15, 2022, under the administration of former Governor Adegboyega Oyetola, were nullified by the Federal High Court for violating the Electoral Act, a decision later upheld by the Court of Appeal.
Alimi said the APC had continued to twist subsequent judgments of February 10 and June 13, 2025, to claim reinstatement, despite the courts having nullified the elections.
The commissioner alleged that the absence of APC lawyers from court was part of a broader effort to sustain what he called an illegal occupation of council secretariats.
He said, “It is quite unfortunate that the APC that filed a suit in the first instance for tenure elongation is still the same APC that abandoned the case so that the delay will aid them to continue to unleash havoc and brigandage in Osun Local Governments.”
The stalled court proceedings come amid renewed political exchanges between Governor Ademola Adeleke and the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Gboyega Oyetola, whom the governor has accused of masterminding the local government crisis.
In a separate statement issued earlier, Governor Adeleke maintained that the tenure of the APC chairmen lapsed in 2025 and could not be extended under the law or Supreme Court precedents.
Questioning the legal basis for the continued stay of the chairmen in office, the governor asked, “Under what authority is Mr Oyetola and his cronies in the guise of council chairmen disbursing funds meant for salaries of local government workers?”
He warned that those involved in the handling of local government funds without lawful authority would be held accountable, adding that “current mishandling of local funds will not go unpunished as this is daylight’s robbery of people’s money.”
With the adjournment of the tenure suit to March, the Osun State Government insists that the absence of APC lawyers has further exposed what it describes as deliberate stalling tactics, even as the local government crisis continues to affect governance and public administration at the grassroots level.
