The Forum of Local Government Vice Chairmen in Osun State, comprising officials elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, has called on the state governor, Ademola Adeleke, to account for local government allocations received between December 2023 and January 2025.
The group made the call in a statement signed by its chairman, Victor Fatoki, a copy of which was made available to journalists in Osogbo on Friday.
The forum alleged that the state government had received over ₦200 billion in local government allocations between December 2022 and January 2025.
However, the governor said the group was unknown to the law and to the state, making it unnecessary to dignify it with a response.
Speaking through his deputy spokesperson, Oladele Bamiji, the governor also in a swift statement said the APC forum was out to disrupt public order and warned against acts capable of causing unrest in any part of the state.
The APC vice chairmen, however, insisted that available figures showed over ₦200 billion had been received by the local government areas in the state during the period under review.
“We are calling on Governor Ademola Adeleke to demonstrate transparency by accounting for the funds accrued to Osun local governments between December 2022 and January 2025,” the Forum said.
The statement added: “If you visit Atakunmosa East, Ila, Ifedayo, Boluwaduro or Obokun today, you will struggle to identify projects or interventions that justify the billions reportedly allocated to them.
“This raises serious questions about financial management and governance at the grassroots. We are amazed by the governor’s zeal in demanding the release of allocations he claims were held by the federal government for 11 months, while showing little enthusiasm in accounting for the over ₦200 billion already received between 2023 and 2024.”
Responding further to the allegations, the governor, who insisted that “There is nothing like a Forum of Vice Chairmen elected on the platform of any political party,” said he would not be distracted by those intent on causing chaos in the state.
“You can’t build something on nothing. So unknown entities to the law can’t begin to come out and accord themselves some legal standing they don’t have. In the face of what they are trying to do, they don’t exist. And it is difficult to now begin to respond to, take serious some unknown entities to governance in Osun State.
“If they were duly recognized by the law, their election was properly done and the court did not sack them as it were, maybe we would give them attention. But as it were, we don’t know them; maybe they are some other miscreants who are just looking for attention.”
The PUNCH reports that the Osun State Government and the opposition APC have been locked in a serious battle over control of local government areas in the state.
The state government and Osun APC are currently before different courts fighting over council resources, a dispute that has stalled local government administration since February 2025, when the crisis began.
