From Newspot Nigeria Legal Desk
A Federal High Court sitting in Osogbo has dismissed a suit filed by some reinstated local government chairmen and councillors elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State, seeking a declaration that their tenure should run until February 2028.
In the judgment delivered on June 15, 2026, Justice Adefunmilola A. Demi-Ajayi held that the plaintiffs’ originating process lacked merit and dismissed the suit in its entirety. The court also awarded costs of ₦200,000 against the claimants in favour of the 1st to 4th and 6th defendants.
The suit, marked FHC/OS/CS/147/2025, was filed by eight local government officials led by Saheed Onibonokuta on behalf of other APC chairmen and councillors elected in the October 15, 2022, local government elections in Osun State. The defendants included the Attorney-General of the Federation, the Inspector-General of Police, Governor Ademola Adeleke, the Osun State Attorney-General, the Osun State House of Assembly, and the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission (OSSIEC).
The claimants had asked the court to declare that their three-year tenure commenced only after they were inaugurated and took their seats as elected local government officials. They also sought declarations that the February 22, 2025, local government election conducted by OSSIEC and the swearing-in of elected officials thereafter were unlawful during what they described as the subsistence of their tenure.
Among other reliefs, the plaintiffs requested orders restraining the Osun State Government and other defendants from removing them from office or installing other persons in the councils until February 19, 2028.
However, after considering the originating summons, the Federal High Court rejected the claims and refused all the reliefs sought by the plaintiffs. Court documents show that the judge ruled that the originating process failed in its entirety and consequently dismissed the action.
The case has been at the centre of the prolonged political and legal dispute over control of local government councils in Osun State. The plaintiffs had argued that their tenure should effectively continue beyond October 2025, while critics maintained that the constitutional three-year tenure of officials elected in October 2022 expired in October 2025.
Reacting to the judgment, the Osun APC described the ruling as a miscarriage of justice and indicated its intention to challenge the decision at the Court of Appeal. The party argued that appeals arising from interlocutory rulings in the matter are already pending before the appellate court and insisted that its elected chairmen and councillors would continue to pursue legal remedies.
The judgment is expected to further shape the ongoing debate over the legality of competing claims to local government administration in Osun State.
— Newspot Nigeria
