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The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has fixed September 29, 2025, to hear a motion filed by the Osun State Government challenging the jurisdiction of the court over the suit on the withheld local government funds.
At Monday’s proceedings, the state government, through its lead counsel, Musibau Adetumbi (SAN), argued that the Abuja division lacked the jurisdiction to continue hearing the matter now that the vacation of the court had ended on September 16.
Adetumbi urged that the case be returned to the Osogbo division for proper adjudication.
The motion was anchored on two grounds: first, that the fiat granted to the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) for the matter to be heard in Abuja had lapsed with the end of the vacation; and second, that a letter purportedly mandating Justice Emeka Nwite to handle the substantive suit in Abuja was questionable.
The senior lawyer contended that the letter, allegedly from the office of the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, was signed by an individual claiming to be the Chief Judge’s personal assistant — a person, he argued, not recognized by law to endorse such a sensitive directive.
He pressed the court to first determine the validity of the letter before delving into the substantive issues.
But counsel to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr. Muritala Abdulrasheed (SAN), and that of the Accountant General of the Federation, Alhaji Tajudeen Oladoja (SAN), countered the application, accusing the state government of seeking to stall the case.
They stressed that the tenure of the elected APC chairmen and councillors, at the heart of the dispute, will expire on October 22, warning that the case would become academic if not promptly resolved.
After listening to arguments, Justice Nwite ruled that the application by the Osun government and all other jurisdictional challenges would be taken on September 29 before moving to any substantive matter.
Earlier in the proceedings, the court struck out the name of the Attorney General of the Federation from the suit following the plaintiff’s notice of discontinuance against him.
The state explained that a related case involving the AGF was already pending before the Supreme Court.
The suit, instituted by the Osun Attorney General, Oluwole Jimi-Bada, seeks to restrain the CBN and the Accountant General of the Federation from opening and operating accounts for local government chairmen elected in October 2022 under the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The Osun government maintains that the chairmen, elected in a poll boycotted by other parties, had already been sacked by a Federal High Court decision, later affirmed by the Court of Appeal.
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