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The Osun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has taken its grievances against the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), and the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Mr. Adegboyega Oyetola, to the doorstep of international embassies and global rights organisations over what it describes as “deliberate disobedience” to a subsisting court judgment on local government leadership in the state.
In a statement signed by its Chairman, Hon. Sunday Bisi, and released to the press in Osogbo on Monday, the ruling party in Osun accused the duo of orchestrating the ongoing local government crisis by allegedly frustrating the implementation of a Court of Appeal judgment that affirmed the legality of PDP-elected local council chairmen and councillors.
“Rather than ensure compliance with the court order. Mr. Oyetola has been allegedly using his family ties with President Bola Tinubu to facilitate the continued illegal withholding of Osun’s local government allocations for over five months, an act that has no legal basis,” he said.
The PDP claimed that despite clear judicial pronouncements, both the AGF and the Blue Economy Minister are “insisting on paying local government funds to court-sacked APC chairmen,”. The party said the move constitutes an assault on constitutional democracy and a dangerous precedent in governance.
“We find this development worrisome and an open threat to democratic governance. “We call on Western embassies and international rights organisations to sanction these federal officials whose actions threaten the rule of law and the sanctity of the judiciary,” it said.
The party further urged the international community to impose visa bans and other punitive measures on the officials, alleging that their actions undermine democracy in Nigeria.
Highlighting the legal journey that led to the Court of Appeal judgment in favour of the PDP, the party noted that rather than uphold the law, federal actors have continued to interfere in the state’s local governance structure — “a brazen breach of Nigeria’s constitution and judicial independence.”
The PDP also called on rights groups like Transparency International, Amnesty International, International Crisis Group, and the European Union, among others, to open investigations into the crisis and issue reports on what it called “anti-democratic threats in Osun State.”
“We request that Osun’s 2026 gubernatorial election be adopted as a litmus test for Nigeria’s 2027 general elections, with a spotlight on the risks and democratic backsliding being orchestrated by federal enablers,” the statement said.
According to the PDP, the party will not relent in escalating its protests to the global stage until all legitimately elected local government officials are allowed to function and Osun’s allocations are released without further delay.
“We will continue to petition relevant international institutions until justice is done and democracy is respected in Osun State,” the party vowed.
As of press time, neither the Office of the Attorney General nor that of the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy had issued an official response to the allegations.
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