AGF Urges Supreme Court to Order Osun to Refund Seven Months’ LG Allocations

The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), has asked the Supreme Court to compel the Osun State Government to refund seven months’ worth of local government allocations to the Federal Government.

The demand was made in a legal response filed by Fagbemi’s counsel, Chief Akin Olujimi (SAN), following a lawsuit instituted by the Osun State Government. In the suit, marked SC/CV/379/2025, Osun accused the Federal Government of failing to release the statutory allocation due to its 30 local governments for the month of March 2025.

According to Osun, when it inquired about the missing funds, the Minister of Finance, Wale Odun, allegedly claimed he was acting on the directive of the AGF.

However, in a counter-affidavit deposed by Taye Oloyede, Special Assistant to the President, the AGF denied ever issuing such a directive. Oloyede stated that the Minister of Finance, in a meeting on May 22, 2025, denied receiving any instruction from the AGF to withhold Osun’s LG allocations.

Fagbemi also challenged the legality of Osun’s suit, accusing the state government of disregarding a Supreme Court judgment delivered on July 11, 2024. He argued that Osun’s reliance on a 2004 Supreme Court case between the Attorney General of Lagos State and the Attorney General of the Federation was misplaced and irrelevant to the current matter.