• Urge FG to urgently enforce court judgments
• Want govt to stop allocating public funds to illegal occupants

Two prominent Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), yesterday, declared the occupation of local council secretariats in Osun State by the All Progressives Congress (APC) officials as illegal, urging the Federal Government to urgently enforce court judgments.

In separate peaceful protests in Abuja, the Nigeria Society for Democracy and Good Governance (NSDGG) and the Coalition of Civil Society for Justice and Equity (CCSJE) urged the Attorney-General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), and the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, to intervene by recognising and funding only the duly elected officials of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

According to the CSOs, the PDP chairmen and councillors were validly elected in an election conducted by the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission (OSSIEC) in line with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022.

However, despite court rulings voiding the appointment of APC officials, the party’s functionaries allegedly continued to occupy council offices across the state.

Chairman of the CCSJE, Collins Idowu, who spoke with journalists, stressed the financial and constitutional dangers of the ongoing crisis. He called on the Minister of Finance to withhold further allocations to the illegally occupying APC officials and instead channel funds to the duly elected PDP chairmen and councillors.

Also speaking during a separate protest on the same issue, the Spokesperson for the NSDGG, Usman Saidu Calculus, described the situation as “a direct threat to democracy.”

He warned that continued financial support to those without a legal mandate sets a dangerous precedent and might trigger instability and chaos at the grassroots governance level.

Meanwhile, as of the time of filing this report, neither the office of the attorney-general nor the Ministry of Finance had issued any official response.