Osun State Government, yesterday, at the Federal High Court, Abuja, challenged the transfer of a suit from the Osogbo, Osun State Division of the court to the Abuja Division.

The suit is seeking to restrain the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from opening accounts for the chairmen elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2022, whom the state government affirmed had been sacked by the same Federal High Court.

Earlier this year, the Federal High Court sitting in Osogbo had ordered parties in the case to maintain the status quo while the case was adjourned till November 2025. It was this case that had now been moved to Abuja for “expeditious hearing” by a vacation judge.

When the matter came up yesterday, before Justice Emeka Nwite sitting as a vacation judge of the Federal High Court, Abuja, Musibau Adetunbi, SAN, representing the Osun State Attorney General, Oluwole Jimi-Bada, who filed the case on behalf of the state government, told the court that the plaintiff filed two motions on notice, challenging the jurisdiction of the Abuja court to hear the suit transferred from the Osogbo, Osun State division of the Federal High Court on the orders of the Chief Judge (CJ) of the court, Justice John Tsoho.

According to the motion, the plaintiff seeks the setting aside of the fiat said to have been given at the instance of the CJ contained in a letter dated August 21 signed by his personal assistant, Joshua Ibrahim.

He also wants an order setting aside the directive of the CJ that the matter be heard by a vacation judge and that the court should decline jurisdiction to hear the matter during its yearly vacation, and returning the case file to the Osogbo judicial division of the Federal High Court.

Adetunbi said the second motion on notice was for the discontinuance of the case against the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, who is the third defendant in the suit, which has the CBN and Accountant General of the Federation as the first and second defendants.

The motion read: “Sequel to the affidavit of urgency filed by the AGF on August 13, it became obvious that he is willing and at the verge of paying the allocation of the Constituent Local Government Councils of the plaintiff’s state to the illegal and sacked APC Chairmen and Councillors.

“Consequent on the above, the plaintiff is desirous of initiating and prosecuting a fresh suit against the third defendant (AGF) at the Supreme Court of Nigeria.”

In another motion on notice filed on August 26, the plaintiff prayed the court for an order staying further proceedings in the suit pending the hearing and determination of the suit, numbered SC/CV/773/2025, between the Attorney General of Osun State and the AGF at the Supreme Court.

According to the counsel to the plaintiff, “all the processes have been duly served on the defendants” a position which counsel to the AGF, Chief Akin Olujimi, SAN, disputed, saying he had not been served with the motion on notice for the discontinuance of the plaintiff’s case against his client.

Olujimi, however, said even if the notice of discontinuance was duly served on him, it could not stop the proceedings of the day until the court made an order to that effect, and added that such notice must be attached with an affidavit of service.

After listening to the submissions of counsel in the matter, Justice Emeka Nwite adjourned the case till September 22, 2025, for the hearing of all the applications filed in the matter.