Describe release of funds to sacked chairmen as bizarre, scary, unprecedented
The Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Osun State chapter, has raised the alarm over what it described as an “unprecedented abuse of power” by some key Federal Government officials in the handling of the state’s local council allocations.
The state NULGE President, Dr Nathaniel Ogungbangbe, who spoke during a media briefing in Osogbo yesterday, accused the Minister of Finance, the Accountant-General of the Federation, and the Attorney-General of the Federation of unlawfully releasing Osun’s local councils’ funds into accounts operated by the sacked All Progressives Congress (APC) chairmen and councillors.
According to him, “today, we have it on good authority that these three principal officers of the Federal Government have released the Osun State local councils’ allocations for the month of March 2025 to September 2025 to the illegal bank accounts opened by the court-sacked APC chairmen and councillors.
We find this development very scary and alarming. Paying local council allocations into privately opened and illegal bank accounts of politicians is unbelievable, bizarre and unprecedented in the history of public administration in Nigeria.”
Ogungbangbe said that the controversial accounts were opened without due process.
The NULGE leader said that the action of the federal officers amounted to a violation of both the constitution and judicial pronouncements.
He further warned against undermining the rule of law, insisting that the Attorney-General of the Federation could not overrule the courts.
The union, while calling for calm, urged residents not to allow “enemies of the state” to incite violence that could justify a declaration of emergency rule in the state.
ON its part, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Osun State chapter, said it noted the admission by the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) that it had received federal allocations due to local government councils in the state.
The state chapter of the APC had earlier issued a statement attacking the state branch of NULGE for condemning the payment of the allocations into illegal accounts opened by the court-sacked chairmen and councillors of the APC. In the statement, the APC admitted that the allocations had been paid but said they were not paid into the account of any of the APC members or chieftains, “but into the local government councils’ accounts.”
In its immediate reaction, the PDP challenged the APC to disclose the accounts into which the allocations were paid and the signatories of the accounts.
A statement by the state chairman of the PDP, Sunday Bisi, described the earlier statement issued by the APC as an admission of crime against Osun people.
The statement reads in part: “Rather than engaging in name-calling and reckless propaganda against the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), we challenge the APC to come clean before the people of Osun State by publicly disclosing the exact bank accounts into which the local government allocations were paid and the signatories to those accounts. The APC should also disclose the amount in each of the accounts.
“We demand these details because all the statutory officers of all the 30 Local Governments who should be aware of the payment are not aware of it. These officers manage all the accounts of the local governments. They have not seen a dime in any of their local government accounts. Also, none of the state accountant general, the auditor-general for local governments and the ministry of local governments is aware of the payments or where they were paid into.”
