<\/p>\n
The ongoing battle over the administration and funding of local governments in Osun State has taken a sharp turn. <\/p>\n
Dr. Bolaji Akinola, the Special Adviser to the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Gboyega Oyetola, has lashed out at Governor Ademola Adeleke, accusing him of using \u201cpropaganda and falsehoods\u201d to hide his administration\u2019s failures.<\/p>\n
In a strongly worded statement released on Wednesday, Akinola argued that the Governor\u2019s recent outcries over withheld council funds are merely a \u201cdesperate attempt to deflect attention from glaring incompetence and serial abuse of the judicial process.\u201d <\/p>\n
He maintained that the financial bottlenecks facing the councils are self-inflicted wounds caused by the state government\u2019s own legal maneuvers.<\/p>\n
According to the Minister\u2019s aide, the Adeleke-led government has overwhelmed the court system with \u201cfrivolous and ill-conceived lawsuits\u201d in a futile effort to bypass established legal rulings. <\/p>\n
\u201cNo serious government sabotages its own legal standing and then seeks scapegoats for the consequences,\u201d Akinola stated, dismissing claims that Oyetola was interfering with the state\u2019s finances.<\/p>\n
Central to the dispute is a Court of Appeal judgment from February 10, 2025, which reinstated the local government chairmen elected under the previous APC administration. <\/p>\n
Akinola pointed out that since the state government chose not to appeal that specific ruling, it remains final and binding. He described the Governor\u2019s refusal to recognize these officials as a \u201cdeliberate refusal to accept judicial authority.\u201d<\/p>\n
Addressing the Governor\u2019s claims that the local government system has been paralyzed, Akinola labeled such assertions \u201ca blatant falsehood.\u201d <\/p>\n
He further noted that the narrative of a total breakdown in governance \u201cexists only in the imagination of a governor using falsehood to seek public sympathy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Akinola also reminded the state government of the July 11, 2024, Supreme Court ruling which granted full financial autonomy to local governments. He argued that this landmark decision prevents any governor from dissolving elected councils or installing caretaker committees. <\/p>\n
Regarding the tenure of the current chairmen\u2014which Adeleke claims has expired\u2014Akinola stated that the matter is already before the courts and any attempt to forcefully remove them is an illegality.<\/p>\n
The Minister\u2019s aide didn\u2019t stop at financial matters. He also debunked allegations that Oyetola was \u201cweaponising\u201d the Nigeria Police Force to intimidate the state. <\/p>\n
He described these claims as \u201cfalse, inflammatory, and irresponsible,\u201d explaining that the police operate under a national command structure that cannot be controlled by an individual minister.<\/p>\n
\u201cGovernance is not theatre, and Osun people deserve facts, not fiction,\u201d Akinola concluded, insisting that the only real crisis in the state is a leadership unwilling to face legal reality.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The ongoing battle over the administration and funding of local governments in Osun State has taken a sharp turn. Dr. Bolaji Akinola, the Special Adviser to the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Gboyega Oyetola, has lashed out at Governor Ademola Adeleke, accusing him of using \u201cpropaganda and falsehoods\u201d to hide his administration\u2019s failures. In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":240536,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-240535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/images-43.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}