Says Case Overtaken By Events

The Attorney-General (AG) of Osun State has filed a notice of withdrawal of the suit he instituted against the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF) seeking to stop the Federal Government from releasing withheld local government allocations to the “court-sacked” Local Government Chairmen and Councillors elected during the tenure of former governor Adegboyega Oyetola.

While moving the motion on Friday, counsel to the Osun AG, Musibau Adetumbi (SAN), said the aim of the suit, which sought to safeguard the money, had been defeated as the allocation had been moved out of the CBN by the defendants.

“On September 29, 2025, when the matter was heard, I told the court that our primary aim was to safeguard the money. Between then and now, we are sure that, notwithstanding the pendency of the case and order of status quo, the money was moved out of the CBN,” Adetumbi said. He told the court that the notice of discontinuance was filed pursuant to Order 51 Rule 2 of the Federal High Court Rules, adding that any further arguments in the matter would amount to an academic exercise.

As against the submission of the defendants, Adetumbi said the tenure of the court-sacked local government chairmen and councillors elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), “assuming without conceding that they had a tenure,” lapsed on Wednesday, October 16, 2025.

In their various submissions on the notice of discontinuance filed by the plaintiff, counsel to the defendants, Dr. Muritala Abdulrasheed (SAN) for the CBN, and Tajudeen Oladoja (SAN) for the AGF, did not oppose the application but faulted the averments in an affidavit of facts attached to the application.

Muritala, said the plaintiff made damaging depositions in the affidavit of facts, adding that the plaintiff should withdraw the affidavit along with the notice of discontinuance because some of the depositions in the affidavit were against persons who are not parties in the matter.

“Somebody can approach the court any day with a request for a Certified True Copy (CTC) of the process and may decide to use it against the persons mentioned in the plaintiff’s affidavit of facts,” the CBN lawyer stated, adding that the grounds upon which the notice of discontinuance was predicated were in bad faith.

He said the plaintiff got it wrong when he claimed that the first defendant had no competent response to the plaintiff’s originating summons, adding that a 12-paragraph counter-affidavit to the originating summons was filed on behalf of his client in May.

“While we are not opposing the withdrawal of the suit, we are against the grounds for the withdrawal,” Muritala said, urging the court to expunge paragraphs five to 11 in the affidavit of facts filed by the plaintiff for being inaccurate and for referring to persons who are not before the court.

Counsel to the Accountant-General, Tajudeen, also did not oppose the application for discontinuance “because the plaintiff has the liberty to withdraw his case.”

“However, we are in vehement opposition to the second ground upon which the application is predicated. The plaintiff is not under any obligation to predicate his application on any ground,” he said, adding that it is not true to say that the second defendant has no competent defence in the matter.

He explained that his client filed an application for an extension of time to file a counter-affidavit in opposition to the plaintiff’s originating summons on September 8, which had not been determined due to the application filed by the plaintiff accusing the court of bias and challenging its jurisdiction.

He urged the court to strike out ground one of the notice of discontinuance and ground two, which stated that certain money had been paid, a claim the second defendant had not been given an opportunity to react to.

Tajudeen also asked for a cost of N10 million against the plaintiff for bringing the second defendant to court, for the court processes filed in the matter, and for wasting the precious judicial time of the court.

Responding, Adetumbi said a notice of discontinuance under Order 50 Rule 2 of the Federal High Court Rules does not attract cost, adding that the defendants had not filed any process before the court.

“It is their default to have filed their process out of time. They cannot approach the court to ask for cost or expunging any of the grounds in the notice of discontinuance,” he argued.

Having listened to the submissions of counsel in the matter, the trial judge, Justice Emeka Nwite, adjourned till October 29 to rule on the plaintiff’s application for discontinuance and other applications by the defendants.

Justice Nwite had in a ruling on a request by the CBN and the AGF for the dismissal of the case, delivered on Wednesday, held that the Osun Attorney-General has locus standi to institute the suit on behalf of the local government authorities.