The group accused the Nigerian government and the Nigeria Police Force of complicity in allowing individuals it described as “impostors” to continue occupying local council secretariats in defiance of subsisting court rulings.
Leaders of organised civil society, labour unions and youth groups under the aegis of the Movement for Credible Elections (MCE) have announced plans to storm Osun State in February.
This is over the illegal occupation of local government councils and the diversion of statutory allocations meant for grassroots development.
In a press statement issued on Friday, the group accused the Nigerian government and the Nigeria Police Force of complicity in allowing individuals it described as “impostors” to continue occupying local council secretariats in defiance of subsisting court rulings.
The statement, signed by the Media Coordinator of the Movement, Comrade James Ezema, followed an emergency meeting of the MCE National Secretariat earlier in the day.
According to the group, a Federal High Court sitting in Osogbo had nullified the tenure of the former chairmen and councillors elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in November 2022.
The judgment, it said, was subsequently upheld by the Court of Appeal on February 10, 2025, and reaffirmed on June 13, 2025, on the grounds that the elections were conducted “in clear violation of the requirements of the law.”
The Movement condemned what it described as the continued diversion and withholding of statutory allocations due to Osun local governments, calling the action “unlawful, immoral, and a dangerous abuse of the Nigerian Constitution.”
According to the MCE, the alleged withholding of funds was aimed at “frustrating and coercing the Osun state government duly elected on a party platform different from the party ruling at the federal level.”
The group also questioned the legal basis upon which the APC chairmen and councillors were currently administering the councils, noting that they had already admitted that their tenure had expired and had approached the court for tenure elongation.
“So under what authority are they holding unto the local governments and administering local government funds, if by the state law it’s only career civil servants that can be signatories to the Local Governments accounts?” the statement queried.
The Movement further raised concerns over the role of the United Bank for Africa (UBA) in the crisis, accusing the bank of acting on what it described as “subversive directives from Abuja.”
“Why is UBA taking subversive directives from Abuja and Leaders of Osun APC paying out councils funds to politicians without lawful mandates? Why is the UBA violating Osun LG laws?” the statement asked.
Speaking on behalf of the Movement, the Head of Secretariat, Che Olawale Okunniyi, described the continued occupation of council secretariats by APC officials as “a brazen subversion of the rule of law and democratic order.”
He accused the Federal Government and the Police of emboldening the alleged illegal occupants, noting that they were “boasting that they won't leave the council secretariats in-spite of subsisting court orders.”
The Movement lamented the humanitarian impact of the crisis, saying the consequences were being borne by ordinary citizens.
“In this imposed impunity, those suffering the most are primarily retirees, health care workers and the masses in general etc. So, why would the Federal Government and her agents in Abuja taking joy in the sufferings and hardship of the Osun people?” the statement read.
The MCE stressed that the local government system is a constitutionally recognised autonomous tier of government and that statutory allocations belong to the people at the grassroots, not the Federal Government or any political party.
It said the withholding of funds had resulted in unpaid salaries, crippled primary healthcare services, abandoned basic education responsibilities and “untold suffering of the ordinary citizens in Osun.”
The Movement warned that politicising local government allocations posed grave dangers to Nigeria’s democracy, rule of law and national cohesion, cautioning that “normalising financial strangulation of states and local governments based on partisan schemes sets a precedence that could destabilize Nigeria’s democratic order.”
Reaffirming its commitment to democratic principles, the MCE called on civil society groups, labour unions, youths, professional bodies and “all lovers of democracy” to remain on alert and prepare to intervene in Osun State in February.
The group said the planned action was aimed at addressing what it described as “grave injustice against the suffering masses of Osun.”