The Honourable Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, His Excellency Dr Adegboyega Oyetola, CON, has been emphatically exonerated from unfounded 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 Dr Akinola reaffirmed that all local governments in Nigeria have financial autonomy, and are beyond the control of any person or entity, including the state government.
Reacting to a press release issued by the Speaker of the Osun State House of Assembly, Adewale Egbedun, on Sunday, 1st February 2026, Akinola said the attempt to link Dr Oyetola to the administration or disbursement of local government funds was reckless propaganda designed to distract the public from the state government’s own failures and ongoing 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.
Dr Akinola stated that the press statement attributed to Egbedun merely recycled the same discredited narratives earlier pushed by Governor Ademola Adeleke, describing them as a desperate attempt to unlawfully 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 unequivocally granted full financial autonomy to all local governments in Nigeria, affirming their independence and expressly 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 valid and subsisting judgment of the Court of Appeal delivered on 10 February 2025 reinstated the duly elected local government chairmen in Osun State. 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 and intellectually dishonest the repeated 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 twelve 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 and sponsoring 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 strongly condemned what he described as deliberate and calculated misinformation being pushed into the public domain by the Speaker of the House, accusing him of misrepresenting settled legal issues to mislead the public. He also cautioned Egbedun to exercise restraint in his public utterances, particularly against making reckless and insulting remarks against the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, warning that public office does not grant immunity from responsibility or consequences.
He called on Nigerians, civil society organisations and all supporters of constitutional democracy to stand in defence of local government autonomy and to condemn ongoing attempts by the Osun State Government and House of Assembly to circumvent the Supreme Court judgment of 11 July 2024, insisting that the rule of law must prevail over political desperation.
Signed:
Dr Bolaji Akinola
Special Adviser to the Honourable Minister of Marine and Blue Economy
