Amid the lingering local government crisis in Osun State, the reinstated executives of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have dragged the Federal Government, the Inspector General of Police, the Osun State Government, and others to court, seeking an extension of their tenure beyond its scheduled expiration in October 2025.

The APC officials, elected in October 2022, were sacked by Governor Ademola Adeleke after a Federal Court nullified the election. However, in February 2025, the Court of Appeal reinstated them.

Despite this, PDP members were sworn in as council executives following the February 22 local government poll, leaving both parties claiming control.

Since then, local government workers under the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) have been on strike, while federal allocations remain withheld.

In a fresh suit filed at the Federal High Court, Osogbo (FHC/OS/CS/147/2025), counsel Barrister Muhideen Adeoye, on behalf of Saheed Onibonokuta and seven other local government chairmen, asked the court to extend their tenure until February 19, 2028.

The defendants include the Attorney General of the Federation, the Inspector General of Police, the Osun State Governor, the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission (OSIEC), and the State House of Assembly.

The claimants argued that, under the Constitution and Osun State laws, their tenure should legally commence only from the date they were inaugurated and took their seats as elected council members in February 2025—not from October 2022 when they were first elected but denied office.

They further contended that the conduct of fresh elections in February 2025 during their subsisting tenure was unlawful and an attempt to deprive them of their constitutional right to a full term in office.

The claimants sought for eight reliefs for declaration that OSIEC cannot validly issue a notice of polls, conduct elections into the councils and swear in another set of members during the subsistence of the tenure of office; all steps taken and being taken by the 3th, 4th, 5th and 6th Defendants from the 22nd day of February 2025 and particularly in August, 2025 till date, to force into the Local Government Councils in Osun State some individuals as members of the Councils during the subsistence of the tenure of office of the Claimants is illegal, unlawful, invalid, unconstitutional, null and void.”

They also urged the court that upon a proper interpretation by AGF(1st Defendant) prescribing and curtailing the tenure of office of the Claimants to end in October, 2025 is ultra vires his office, unconstitutional, illegal, null and void only to the extent of his curtailing the tenure of office of the Claimants till October, 2025.

They prayed the court to mandate AGF and IGP to provide needed security to the Claimants to preserve, protect, and enforce their constitutionally and statutorily guaranteed tenure of office till the 19th day of February, 2028, when their three-year tenure will expire by effluxion of time.

They prayed the court to restrain the Governor Ademola Adeleke, Attorney-General of the Osun State, House of Assembly, and OSIEC from taking any step or act to forcefully remove, oust, or force the Claimants out of their offices anytime in October 2025 or thereafter till the 19th day of February, 2028, in their various Local Government Councils. (The Nation)

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