The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the office of the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), yesterday, denied the release of the withheld Osun local councils’ financial allocations to chairmen and councillors elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2022.

The two Federal Government agencies insisted that the claim of the release of the funds was in the realm of rumours. The denial of the release of the withheld funds came when a lawyer to the Osun State Government, Musibau Adetunbi (SAN), told Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, that the funds, which are a subject of litigation, had been surprisingly released last week unlawfully to the APC chairmen.

Adetunbi specifically confirmed that, in spite of the order of the court that the status quo should be maintained pending the resolution of the suit on the financial allocation, CBN and OAGF released the withheld money through special accounts opened for the disputed Local Government chairmen at the United Bank for Africa (UBA).

The senior lawyer, however, said that in a swift reaction, the Osun State Government approached a High Court of Oyo State and secured a restraining order against the bank, stopping it from disbursing the fund to the affected persons.

Adetunbi further told the court that his client had to approach the Oyo State High Court because their counterpart in Osun State had been on strike.

However, Murtala Abdulrasheed and Tajudeen Oladoja, both SANs and representing CBN and OAGF respectively, denied that their clients had effected the release of the money as alleged by the plaintiff.

In their separate submissions, the two senior lawyers insisted that the information provided by the plaintiff counsel remained rumours in the absence of documentary evidence.

The two agencies said that transferring a case by the Chief Judge, John Tsoho, was an administrative one that cannot be challenged by the Osun State Government.

They, therefore, pleaded that the case be expeditiously determined in Abuja. Meanwhile, Justice Nwite has fixed October 16, 2025, for ruling on whether or not the suit should be returned to Osogbo.

MEANWHILE, an Oyo State High Court sitting in Ibadan has granted an interim order restraining the UBA from disbursing the statutory allocations to the APC council bosses.

on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who were reinstated via a Court of Appeal judgment delivered in January.
Justice A. L. Akintola granted the order on Friday, September 26, 2025, after hearing an ex parte application filed by the Attorney-General of Osun State on behalf of the state government.

The judge, however, restrained the bank from releasing the money deposited into accounts opened in the names of the 30 councils by the APC chairmen and councillors, who were earlier sacked by an Osogbo Federal High Court, which delivered its ruling in 2022.

Counsel for the Osun State Government, A. A. Abass, had approached the court in a suit marked 1/1149/25, arguing that the funds would be misappropriated if disbursed through the channels created by the council officials.

According to a copy of the enrolment order sighted by The Guardian yesterday, the court granted three interim orders. The judge, however, adjourned the hearing on the substantive motion for interlocutory injunction to Friday, October 3, 2025.