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The Osun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has urged the Inspector-General of Police to investigate an alleged move by sacked All Progressives Congress (APC) council chairmen to divert nearly N13 billion from local government funds under the guise of legal fees.
In a statement issued in Osogbo on Wednesday and signed by its State Chairman, Hon. Sunday Bisi, the ruling PDP described the development as “a brazen assault on the law and public finance regulations.”
According to the party, a leaked letter circulating online showed that one of the court-sacked chairmen instructed a branch of the United Bank for Africa (UBA) to remit 15 percent of the latest allocation credited to the council’s account to a law firm (name withheld) as legal fees.
Bisi alleged that the same instruction was replicated across all 30 local government councils in the state, adding that the cumulative amount targeted for withdrawal stood at N12.75 billion.
“The total balance in all the local government accounts is about N85 billion. Fifteen percent of that translates to N12.75 billion which these APC men wanted to siphon in the name of legal fees. Thankfully, the Oyo State High Court order of last Friday restrained them from going ahead with the scheme,” he said.
The PDP chairman further revealed that the letters authorizing the deductions were signed by individuals falsely paraded as “treasurers,” a designation unknown to the local government service structure nationwide.
“In one instance, a non-teaching staff of a private polytechnic in Boluwaduro Local Government was listed as treasurer and co-signatory to the letter. This is criminal and shocking,” Bisi alleged.
He noted that the controversial directive sought to authorize “irrevocable deductions” from February to September 2025 in favour of a law firm with a UBA account.
“The APC has descended to reckless impunity. Despite a subsisting Supreme Court case and a restraining order from the Oyo State High Court, they still attempted to illegally tamper with council funds. This is a deliberate subversion of the constitution and an affront to financial regulations,” he added.
The PDP therefore called on the Inspector-General of Police to immediately commence a criminal probe into the matter and bring all those involved to justice.
Meanwhile, the Oyo State High Court’s injunction has barred UBA from honouring any deductions or payments from the accounts opened by the sacked APC chairmen, which had been credited with seven months’ seized local government allocations by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
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