Follow Us on Google
By Chinelo Obogo
The Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola, has been exonerated from allegations levelled by the Osun State House of Assembly, as his Special Adviser, Dr. Bolaji Akinola, described the Assembly’s claims as fabricated and malicious.
This is as Akinola said that all local governments in Nigeria have full financial autonomy.
Reacting to a press release issued by the Speaker of the Osun State House of Assembly, Adewale Egbedun, on Sunday, February 1, 2026, Akinola said the attempt to link Oyetola to the administration or disbursement of local government funds is designed to distract the public from the state government’s legal battles.
He stressed that the Minister has no constitutional or statutory role in local government finance and has neither issued directives to banks nor interfered in the running of local councils.
Akinola stated that the press statement attributed to Egbedun merely recycled the same narratives earlier pushed by Governor Ademola Adeleke, describing them as an attempt to reassert state control over local government funds in defiance of binding court judgments.
According to him, the Osun State Government and the State Assembly are uncomfortable with the reality that local governments have full financial autonomy protected by the Constitution and the Supreme Court.
He pointed out that the Supreme Court judgment delivered on 11 July 2024 granted full financial autonomy to all local governments in Nigeria, affirming their independence and barring state governors from interfering in their affairs or hijacking their funds.
He said the judgment was clear, final and incapable of being overturned by press releases or political threats.
Akinola also recalled that a subsisting judgment of the Court of Appeal delivered on 10 February 2025 reinstated the duly elected local government chairmen in Osun State.
Other News
He emphasised that the Osun State Government chose not to appeal the judgment, making it final, binding and enforceable in law.
By that decision, the reinstated chairmen are lawfully entitled to administer their councils, a fact he said the state government has persistently but unsuccessfully sought to undermine.
He dismissed as false, the description of the chairmen as “illegal”, stressing that they were duly elected, duly reinstated by a superior court of record and remain fully protected by binding judicial pronouncements.
He said no amount of political rhetoric can nullify or wish away those judgments.
He said the Osun State Government has instituted no fewer than 12 separate court cases on the matter, thereby creating administrative bottlenecks and for which the government must now wait for judicial outcomes rather than resorting to propaganda.
He further accused the Adeleke administration of instigating an eleven-month strike by local government workers, thereby paralysing the councils in an attempt to frustrate the autonomous functioning of the councils and create a false narrative.
He asserted that the local governments have full authority to administer their funds without recourse to Governor Ademola Adeleke or the Osun State House of Assembly, and they have their own duly elected councillors who constitutionally form the legislative arm of local government administration.
Akinola condemned what he described as misinformation being pushed into the public domain by the Speaker of the House, accusing him of misrepresenting settled legal issues.
He also cautioned Egbedun to exercise restraint in his public utterances, particularly against making remarks against President Bol Tinubu, warning that public office does not grant immunity from consequences.
