Osun Govt, APC clash over Appeal Court verdict on LG chairmen

By Deborah Oladejo, Osogbo

Following a ruling by the Court of Appeal sitting in Akure on Friday, the Osun State Government and the All Progressives Congress (APC) have traded words over the judgment concerning the status of Local Government chairmen elected in October 2022.

While the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-led government views the judgment as legal confirmation of the removal of the APC chairmen, the APC insists there is no vacancy in Osun’s local councils.

The Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment in the state, Oluomo Kolapo Alimi, described the ruling as a reaffirmation of the Federal High Court’s judgment that sacked the APC chairmen and councillors.

At a press conference in Osogbo, Alimi claimed that the Court upheld the position that the 2022 elections conducted under former Governor Gboyega Oyetola were unconstitutional, null, and void.

According to the commissioner, “In the judgment delivered today (Friday), the Court of Appeal stated that the dismissal of Appeal No. FHC/OS/CS/94/2022 on Jan. 13, 2025 shows that the judgment of the Federal High Court in suit No. FHC/OS/CS/94/2022, which sacked the Osun APC Yes/No Chairmen and Councillors, still subsists and is binding on all those chairmen and councillors. The court made it clear that the APC, which happens to be the appellant, failed to meet the conditions upon which the appeal could be revisited. The court went further to state that the fate that befell the APC Yes/No chairmen is self-inflicted.”

Alimi noted that there has never been any judgment reinstating the APC chairmen, accusing former Governor Gboyega Oyetola and the APC of inflicting political turmoil on the state and calling on them to apologise to Osun citizens.

However, in a swift response, the APC, in a press statement signed by its Director of Media and Information, Mogaji Kola Olabisi, dismissed the government’s claims as “absolute lies” and accused the PDP-led administration of misinforming the public.

According to Olabisi, the Court of Appeal did not overturn its earlier ruling of February 10, 2025, which it insists reinstated the sacked chairmen and councillors.

He said, “The ruling was in respect of a motion filed to relist an appeal jointly filed and abandoned in respect of a lower court decision delivered on 30th November 2022. The Court of Appeal never made any order in its ruling delivered today, 13th June 2025, other than dismissal of the motion for relisting of the abandoned appeal in Appeal No. CA/AK/226M/2022, which is different from the one that reinstated the APC chairmen and councillors. This decision of 10th February 2025 of the Court of Appeal remains binding and valid, and it is only the Supreme Court that can pronounce on or overturn it — but in this instance, there is no appeal against it.”

The APC, however, admonished security agencies in the state to call the Chairman of the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission (OSSIEC), Hashim Abioye, and the Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Kolapo Alimi, to order, warning that unnecessary violence could be ignited by their actions. The party added that if anything happens to any of the reinstated APC elected officers, both individuals will be held responsible.