The public spat over Osun State local government funding has taken a sharper turn, as Dr. Bolaji Akinola, the Special Adviser to the Honourable Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, His Excellency Dr. Adegboyega Oyetola, CON, has accused Governor Ademola Adeleke of “propaganda, falsehood and deliberate misinformation” designed to conceal what he described as the governor’s “administrative failure and disregard for judicial authority”.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, Dr. Akinola said recent outbursts by Adeleke regarding alleged withholding of local government funds were “nothing more than a desperate attempt to deflect attention from his glaring incompetence and serial abuse of the judicial process”.
He dismissed the governor’s claims that Minister Oyetola was responsible for any disruption in local government financing, insisting that “if there is any delay or complication in financial disbursements, the responsibility lies squarely with the Adeleke-led Osun State Government, which has flooded the courts with frivolous and ill-conceived lawsuits in a failed attempt to overturn settled judicial decisions”.
“No serious government sabotages its own legal standing and then seeks scapegoats for the consequences,” Akinola said.
He further accused Adeleke of having previously paralysed local government administration in the state by instigating a prolonged strike by local government workers. According to him, the governor’s present claim that councils remain grounded is “a blatant falsehood”.
“The local government secretariats are open and functioning. Services continue to run, workers are back to their posts, and council administrations are carrying out their statutory responsibilities. The narrative of paralysis exists only in the imagination of a governor using falsehood to seek public sympathy,” he said.
Akinola also referenced a Court of Appeal judgement delivered on 10 February 2025, which he stated reinstated elected local government chairmen in Osun State. He noted that the judgement was not appealed by the Osun State Government and therefore remains final and binding in law.
“The continued agitation by Governor Adeleke represents a deliberate refusal to accept judicial authority,” he claimed.
On the tenure of the reinstated chairmen, the Minister’s aide maintained that they were elected for a three-year term and were allegedly removed illegally within weeks of assuming office. Any suggestion to the contrary, he argued, amounted to “ignorance or intentional misinformation”, adding that the issue of tenure is now before the courts.
Akinola also cited a Supreme Court ruling of 11 July 2024 granting financial autonomy to all local governments in Nigeria, which he said affirmed their status as an independent tier of government and prohibited state governors from dissolving elected councils or imposing caretaker administrations.
“Adeleke should perish the thought of interfering with local government administration in Osun State. The councils are autonomous, lawful, and operational,” he stated.
He also rejected claims that Minister Oyetola was directing or influencing the Nigeria Police, describing such allegations as “false, inflammatory and irresponsible”.
“The police operate under established institutional command structures and cannot be privately controlled by any individual minister. Adeleke should stop misleading the public, stop manufacturing conspiracies, and stop whipping up sentiment to cover manifest ineptitude. Governance is not theatre, and Osun people deserve facts, not fiction,” Akinola said.
He asserted that Osun’s local government administrations are “lawful, autonomous, functional, and protected by binding court judgements”, adding that “the only crisis presently facing the system is a governor unwilling to accept legal reality”.