Osun State House of Assembly, yesterday, affirmed that chairmen of local councils elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) during the February 2022 election were the recognised custodians of mandates at the grassroots level.

The House, during a plenary after deliberation on a matter of public urgent importance, which was moved by the lawmaker representing Obokun State Constituency, Adewumi Adeyemi, also cautioned the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) against releasing the councils’ withheld allocations to the chairmen elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) that were reinstated by February 10 Court of Appeal judgment.

Heads of Local Government Administration in the state were in attendance during the plenary. The Speaker, Adewale Egbedun, who read the resolutions, accused the APC of causing hardship for the people due to what he termed illegal occupation of council secretariats despite the court’s nullification of the October 15, 2022, council poll conducted by the immediate past administration of Governor Gboyega Oyetola.

Earlier, the Majority Leader, Kofoworola Adewumi (Ede North), had moved a resolution to resist a plot to unseat PDP council chairmen elected on February 22, 2025, which was seconded by a lawmaker representing Ejigbo State Constituency, Olujinmi Asagade.

MEANWHILE, the House of Representatives member representing Obokun/Oriade Federal Constituency of Osun State, Wole Oke, has tasked Governor Ademola Adeleke to stop blackmailing President Bola Tinubu over the ongoing council imbroglio in the state.

Oke also blamed the governor for his lack of action on February 10, 2025, Appeal Court judgment for the current situation in the state.

HOWEVER, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Osun State chapter, yesterday, said the content of the Certified True Copy (CTC) of last week Friday’s judgment of the Court of Appeal sitting in Akure has dismissed claim by the All Progressives Congress (APC) that the chairmen on the party’s platform were reinstated by the February 10, 2025 judgment.

The party described the ruling as a clear confirmation that the APC’s claim of reinstatement was nothing but fake news, lacking any legal basis.

A statement by the Osun State Chairman of the PDP, Sunday Bisi, maintained that the appellate court’s decision had finally laid to rest what he termed a misleading narrative promoted by the opposition, saying: “The sacked APC journeymen have no mandate or standing to parade themselves as local council chairmen.”

The PDP noted that with the latest judicial confirmation, there is no any justification for the continued withholding of council allocations due to Osun State, just as it called on the Federal Government to immediately unblock the funds and allow for seamless council administration with a view to delivering further dividends of democracy to the grassroots.

This was just as the Osun State APC, in a statement signed by its Director of Media and Information, Kola Olabisi, lampooned the state PDP caucus in the House of Representatives for alleged meddlesomeness over the non-release of allocations due to local councils in the state.

According to Olabisi, it is a pity that the complaining federal legislators of the lower chamber of the National Assembly could descend so low as not to know the extent of their statutory authorities and roles under the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended.

Meanwhile, the PDP has called on President Bola Tinubu to intervene and call the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), to order, contending that his “persistent interference in Osun’s affairs smacks of personal vendetta, driven by partisan bitterness.”