Osun NULGE accuses FG of diverting LG funds, APC denies allegation

By Deborah Oladejo, Osogbo –

The Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Osun State chapter, has accused the Federal Government of illegally diverting local government allocations into private accounts allegedly opened by the ‘reinstated’ All Progressives Congress (APC) council chairmen and councillors.

Addressing journalists in Osogbo on Sunday, the state president of NULGE, Dr. Nathaniel Ogungbangbe, alleged that the Minister of Finance, the Accountant-General of the Federation, and the Attorney-General of the Federation had authorised the payment of statutory allocations from March to September 2025 into “unauthorised accounts” opened with United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc.

According to Ogungbangbe, “We find this development very scary and alarming. Paying local government allocations into privately opened and illegal bank accounts of politicians is unbelievable, bizarre, and unprecedented in the history of public administration in Nigeria. These funds were paid into accounts opened by these APC men with United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, despite the fact that due process was not followed in opening the said accounts.”

The union stressed that both the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal had already removed the APC officials from office, while new elections had produced fresh chairmen and councillors who had since been sworn in.

He said, “We are not politicians, but our work as career officers who are expected to protect the assets of the councils is directly impacted by this illegal action of the Federal Government. There are existing bank accounts of the thirty (30) local governments in various commercial banks. What informed the opening of the UBA accounts by the APC politicians in the names of the thirty (30) local governments in Osun State, with the active support of the Attorney-General of the Federation?”

The union, however, insisted that its members would not work with the APC officials, who they said had been sacked by competent courts of law “but are being imposed on our state by the Attorney-General.”

In a swift reaction, the APC said it was not true that the said federal allocations were paid into the accounts of any local government council chairman or any APC member or chieftain, but rather into the local government councils’ accounts.

The APC, in a statement by its Director of Media and Information, Kola Olabisi, described NULGE’s allegations as “a series of lies to curry unmerited favour” and accused the union of abandoning its purpose as a labour body to become an arm of the PDP.