Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, and the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state have traded words over local government administration in the state.

The APC, in a statement issued by its Director of Media and Information, Kola Olabisi, accused the governor of misinforming the public about the status of elected council officials. The governor’s spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed, insisted that the APC officials occupying the council secretariats are doing so illegally.

Olabisi said, “The governor’s broadcast was a ploy to use falsehoods to confuse and ultimately misinform members of the public, as it is far from the truth that the reinstated APC chairmen and councillors have been illegally occupying the local government council secretariats for about one year.

“One would have expected Governor Adeleke to have been bold enough to own up in his broadcast that he used executive power to sack the legally elected APC chairmen and councillors immediately he assumed office, without allowing them to enjoy the constitutionally guaranteed right to seek redress in court.

“It was also expected that the governor would have been honest enough to tell the world that it was the Court of Appeal judgment of February 10, 2025, which reinstated the APC local government council chairmen and councillors in a landmark decision, and that there is no information anywhere indicating that the judgment has been appealed, making it binding to date.

“Part of the brazen lies told by Governor Adeleke, that the reinstated APC council chairmen and councillors are suing for the elongation of their tenure, does not hold water, as the matter before the Federal High Court in Osogbo is the determination of the three-year tenure of the APC council executives.

“One would have expected a state executive that is honest enough to have disclosed in his broadcast that, apart from the determination of tenure, the reinstated APC council chairmen and councillors are also challenging the legality of conducting another council election during the subsistence of their tenure.”

However, Adeleke, in his response, insisted that the council officials’ tenure was illegally extended, saying their tenure lapsed in October 2025.

“Local government autonomy is not equal to unjustifiable seizure of local government funds meant to pay local health workers, local teachers, and local pensioners. I have been paying these workers because autonomy does not mean imposing avoidable hardship on the people.

“If truly we are in a democracy, unelected people cannot lay claim to local governments or tamper with public funds. In a practical democracy, you cannot extend your tenure by a single day without consequences.

“In a democracy, the police will not give cover to unelected people or persons with expired, self-awarded tenure to occupy councils. The mere fact that these APC officials admitted that their tenure had lapsed and that they had gone to court for elongation is enough for the police to withdraw cover and allow validly elected local government chairmen to assume office.

“If you admitted that your tenure has lapsed, what are you still doing at the councils? If you have gone to court to seek tenure elongation, why must you still occupy the councils when the case has not even been heard?

“The fact that you file a case does not mean your tenure has been elongated. And your tenure cannot even be elongated because the Constitution does not allow it. Osun APC is engaging in a severe and criminal breach of the law and the Constitution,” he added.

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