A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Kunle Rasheed Adegoke, has faulted the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, over its intervention in the lingering Osun State local government crisis
Adegoke, who is also an All Progressives Congress, APC, gubernatorial aspirant, insisted that the February 10, 2025, Court of Appeal judgment reinstating the APC chairmen remained binding.
In a detailed rejoinder addressed to the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Adegoke described the NBA’s call for the immediate release of local government allocations in Osun State as partisan and legally unsustainable.
The personally signed letter, dated August 25, 2025 and issued through his law firm, Kunle Adegoke & Co., in response to a correspondence earlier written by NBA President, Afam Osigwe and Secretary-General, Mobolaji Ojibara, Adegoke said the NBA’s position on the matter reflects non-neutrality, inaccuracy, and jurisprudential weakness that must be discountenanced by the Federal Government and other stakeholders.
Arguing that the professional body has no locus standi to interpret or pronounce on the validity of court judgments, he stressed that only the Supreme Court has such powers under the Nigerian legal system.
“The NBA is not a party to the case. It has no mandate or jurisdiction to review or interpret the judgments of the courts. Its attempt to arrogate to itself the role of a super-court is an error of law,” Adegoke wrote.
He outlined the timeline of the dispute, beginning with the October 15, 2022, local government elections in Osun State, which produced APC chairmen and councillors under the supervision of the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission, OSSIEC.
He noted that although the Federal High Court nullified the polls on November 25, 2022, the APC immediately appealed, and on February 10, 2025, the Court of Appeal set aside the judgement, thereby reinstating the APC officials.
Despite this ruling, Adegoke observed that the Osun State Government under the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, proceeded to conduct fresh local government elections on February 22, 2025, which he described as illegal.
“It is a notorious principle of law that one can not put something on nothing. The February 2025 elections were a nullity because duly elected APC officials were still validly in office,” the rejoinder stated.
He dismissed reliance on the June 13, 2025, ruling of the Court of Appeal, which declined to relist an earlier appeal dismissed for want of prosecution, stressing that the judgment did not affirm the PDP elections.
Adegoke emphasised that references to the February 2025 polls in a concurring opinion of Justice Omoleye amounted to obiter dictum and lacked any binding legal force.
“Nowhere in the lead judgment was the purported PDP election of 22nd February 2025 affirmed. The concurring opinion was irrelevant and can not override the February 10, 2025 judgment,” he explained.
The lawyer maintained that the February 10 ruling restored legitimacy to the APC chairmen and councillors, adding that the NBA’s interpretation of subsequent events amounted to institutional overreach.
He also faulted the association’s decision to set up a committee to review the judgments, stressing that the NBA lacked competence or authority to perform such a function.
“The NBA is not a court of law; it is a voluntary professional association. Its findings are advisory at best, partisan at worst, and certainly not binding on the Federal Government,” he noted.
Adegoke argued that the APC chairmen and councillors remained the only lawful recipients of local government allocations from the Federation Account.
He therefore urged the Attorney-General of the Federation and the Federal Government to disregard what he termed distractions and partisan pressures in handling the matter.
“The only lawful recipients of the withheld local government allocations in Osun State are the democratically elected APC chairmen and councillors, whose tenure endures till this moment,” he insisted
Adegoke called on the federal government to immediately release the funds to the APC officials, adding that justice, due process, and fidelity to the Constitution demand nothing less.
The local government administration in Osun remained unresolved with both the state government, the PDP, and APC claiming administrative rights.
Also, OSSIEC, through its Chairman, Hashim Abioye, has insisted that the PDP candidates who emerged victors in the February 22, 2025 local government polls remained duly elected.
The leadership of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has announced that the association’s next Annual Conference will take place in Port Harcourt, the capital city of Rivers State.
Afam Osigwe, the National President of the NBA made this disclosure at the ongoing conference in Enugu State.
Osigwe said, “The next conference will take place in Port Harcourt. But our going to Port Harcourt is on a condition, that democratic institutions would be restored and succeed. Thank you.”
Recall that the 2025 NBA Annual Conference was earlier scheduled to be held in Rivers State.
It was however, moved to Enugu following the declaration of a State of Emergency and suspension of the state governor, Siminalayi Fubara, his deputy and all elected officers in Rivers by President Bola Tinubu.
Shortly after the declaration, the leadership of the NBA condemned the action of the president.
Further calling for the reversal of the state of Emergency and recall of all the elected officials, the NBA, in protest moved its conference from Port Harcourt to Enugu.
