Anebi
The Osun State Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Dosu Babatunde, has warned the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to refrain from paying local government allocations accrued to the state into private accounts.
This is as Babatunde also disclosed that it has available information that the office of the The Accountant General of the Federation and the CBN have concluded plans to allegedly pay Osun local government allocations to private accounts of some impostors.
This warning is contained in a statement signed by the Commissioner and made available to DAILY POST on Wednesday in Osogbo.
The Commissioner also maintained that the planned action is deliberately aimed at thwarting the cases already filed at the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
The statement alleged, “The attention of Osun State Government has been drawn to a conspiracy currently being illegally hatched between the offices of the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and that of the Accountant General of the Federation on the issue of allocations to Local Governments in Osun state as the planned action is deliberately aimed at thwarting the cases already filed at the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
“Available information at our disposal, as a government, indicates that, the offices of The Accountant General of the Federation and Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, have concluded plans to pay Osun LG allocations to private accounts of some impostors.
“As a government, we are in the strong contention that it is quite sad, unfortunate and unconstitutional for these two Federal Government agencies to conclude plans to pay Governments money into private accounts. This will amount to an open violation of public finance regulations.
“When Osun State Government first heard about this plan, it quickly took a step through the office of the the Auditor General for Local Governments in the State by sending a letter to the CBN introducing the accounting officers of each of the 30 local Governments to them such as the Heads of Local Government Administrations(H.L.A) and Director of Finance.
“However, to our great consternation and dismay, the CBN Osogbo office rejected the list and then decided to pay the allocation of Osun Local Government allocations to private accounts of former Governor Gboyega Oyetola’s men who submitted their names without the input of the accounting officers of all the LGs in Osun State.”
While calling on President Bola Tinubu to intervene in the matter, Babatunde alleged that the action is being planned without his consent and the knowledge of the Minister of Finance.
“To this end and with all sense of responsibility, we wish to draw the attention of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to this constitutional shenanigans, because, we are of the conviction and belief that, this unlawful act is being done without the consent and knowledge of Mr President as well as the Honourable Minister of Finance.
“We wish to further add and warn that, any money paid into the private account of any individual is not and will never be Osun State Local Government money, and the consequence for this will be very severe as Osun State Government will not spare any action in line with the dictates of the law in order to redress such anomaly.
“Finally, we are using this medium to appeal to Mr President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to intervene before some people for their own self centered reasons subvert the rule of law to unconstitutionally tamper with people’s money in Osun State,” the statement concluded.
DAILY POST had earlier reported that the Osun State Government and the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, had been at odds over the judicial interpretation of the recent Appeal Court Judgments of Thursday, June 11 and Monday, February 10, 2025.
Both parties have claimed that the judgment of the Appellate Court is in their favour.
While the Osun APC claims that the Judgments affirmed that local government officials elected during the October 22, 2022 local government election in the state were duly re-instated, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP led state government had stated that no court judgment re-instated the APC local government officials.
However, the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission, OSSIEC, in the heat of the turmoil went ahead and conducted the local government election on February 22, 2025.
The winners of the election, the PDP candidates during their swearing-in by Governor Ademola Adeleke on Sunday, February 23 were advised not to resume at the local government secretariats.
The crisis emanating from the conflict over the local government control in the state also claimed several lives, including Remi Abass, am APC chieftain in Ikire, Irewole local government area of the state.
Don’t pay LG funds into private accounts – Osun govt warns CBN, AGF
