The local government chairmen elected under the All Progressives Congress (APC) have dragged the Federal Government, the Inspector General of Police, the Osun State Government, and others to court, seeking an extension of their tenure beyond its scheduled expiration in October 2025.
Other defendants are the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission (OSIEC), and the State House of Assembly.
It would be recalled that the APC officials who were elected in October 2022 during the tenure of former governor Gboyega Oyetola were sacked by a Federal High Court sitting in Osogbo.
However, an Appeal Court sitting in Akure reinstated the council officials in February 2025, more than two years after.
In the suit filed at the Federal High Court, Osogbo (FHC/OS/CS/147/2025), counsel Barrister Muhideen Adeoye, on behalf of Saheed Onibonokuta and seven other local government chairmen, asked the court to extend their tenure until February 19, 2028.
The claimants argued that, under the Constitution and Osun State laws, their tenure should legally commence only from the date they were inaugurated and took their seats as elected council members in February 2025—not from October 2022 when they were first elected but denied office.
They further contended that the conduct of fresh elections in February 2025 during their subsisting tenure was unlawful and an attempt to deprive them of their constitutional right to a full term in office.
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The claimants sought for eight reliefs for declaration that OSIEC cannot validly issue a notice of polls, conduct elections into the councils and swear in another set of members during the subsistence of the tenure of office; all steps taken and being taken by the 3th, 4th, 5th and 6th Defendants from the 22nd day of February 2025 and particularly in August, 2025 till date, to force into the Local Government Councils in Osun State some individuals as members of the Councils during the subsistence of the tenure of office of the Claimants is illegal, unlawful, invalid, unconstitutional, null and void.”
They prayed the court to mandate AGF and IGP to provide needed security to the Claimants to preserve, protect, and enforce their constitutionally and statutorily guaranteed tenure of office till the 19th day of February, 2028, when their three-year tenure will expire by effluxion of time.
They also prayed the court to restrain the Governor Ademola Adeleke, Attorney-General of the Osun State, House of Assembly, and OSIEC from taking any step or act to forcefully remove, oust, or force the Claimants out of their offices anytime in October 2025 or thereafter till the 19th day of February, 2028, in their various Local Government Councils.
