Osun State governor, Senator Ademola Adeleke, on Wednesday lauded the Osun State Council of Obas, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), and other public individuals and groups for their intervention in prevailing on the Federal Government to release Osun’s withheld local government allocations.

Reacting to the NBA and the monarchs’ appeal to the Federal Government and the Presidency, Adeleke appreciated the courage and passion of the various groups for justice, truth, and upholding of the rule of law, stressing that “we are vindicated on all fronts on our rightful claim on the local government crisis.”

A statement by his spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed, particularly commended the NBA leadership for setting up a committee to investigate the Osun local government question and for demonstrating the rare courage to release the report, which declared that there was no legal basis for the continuous withholding of Osun local government allocations.

Adeleke stated, “I am particularly pleased that the NBA report clearly noted that it was a court of law that sacked the APC chairmen from office in 2022, not me, as being peddled in some quarters. After their sack in 2022, the APC chairmen filed for stay of execution, which the court denied. I was not in any way responsible for their sack. The NBA findings have authenticated this reality.

“The election of February 22, 2025, to fill the vacuum created by the judicial sack of the APC chairmen was conducted in compliance with another court order. Our administration has acted all along within the confines of the law and the constitution as affirmed by the NBA letter to the Attorney General of the Federation.

According to the statement, the action of the NBA on the Osun local government matters has cleared all doubts anybody may be harbouring, as the rightfully elected chairmen and councillors for Osun local governments are those elected on February 23, 2025, as again pronounced by the Court of Appeal of June 13, 2025.

It reads further, “By law, today, PDP elected chairmen and councillors are the rightful occupants of the Osun local government leadership. There is therefore no legal or constitutional basis for the withholding of Osun LG allocations.

“I again call on the Federal Government to release Osun’s seized allocations in line with the law and demands of the constitution. We will continue to deploy due process and rule of law in our struggle for justice on this matter,” the governor was quoted as saying.

It is recalled that the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) had called on the Federal Government to immediately release statutory allocations due to local government councils in Osun State, describing the continued withholding of the funds as unconstitutional, unlawful, and a dangerous affront to the rule of law.

In a letter addressed to the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, the NBA leadership, led by its President, Mazi Afam Osigwe, SAN, and General Secretary, Mobolaji Ojibara, demanded that allocations from the Federation Account to Osun’s 30 local governments be released to the duly elected council chairmen and councillors who emerged from the February 22, 2025, local government elections.

The association observed that despite multiple judicial pronouncements clarifying the disputes surrounding the legality of local government leadership in the state, allocations due to councils have been withheld since February 2025, allegedly on the instruction of federal authorities.