A federal high court in Abuja has fixed September 29 to hear a motion by the Osun state government challenging its jurisdiction in a case on withheld LG funds.
At Monday’s proceedings, Osun argued that since the court’s
vacation ended on September 16, the matter should no longer be heard in Abuja
but transferred back to the Osogbo division.
Musibau Adetumbi, counsel to Osun, said the fiat granted to
the attorney-general of the federation (AGF) during the vacation had lapsed.
He also faulted a letter from the office of the chief judge
assigning the matter to Emeka Nwite, judge in Abuja, claiming the document was
signed by “a personal assistant to the personal assistant of the chief judge” —
a person he described as “unknown to law”.
Adetumbi asked the court to determine the validity of the
letter before entertaining the substantive case.
However, Muritala Abdulrasheed, counsel to the Central Bank
of Nigeria (CBN), and Tajudeen Oladoja, counsel to the accountant-general of
the federation, opposed the application.
They argued that the objection was a ploy to delay the
hearing, warning that the tenure of the elected APC chairmen and councillors
would expire on October 22, rendering the suit academic.
After hearing the parties, Nwite fixed September 29 to rule
on the jurisdictional issues.
Earlier in the day, the court struck out the name of the AGF
as a defendant after the plaintiff withdrew the case against him, citing a
related matter already pending before the supreme court.
The suit, filed by Oluwole Jimi-Bada, Osun attorney-general,
seeks to restrain the CBN and the accountant-general from opening or
maintaining accounts for APC LG chairmen elected in October 2022.
The state insists the officials were removed by a subsisting
judgment of the federal high court, which was later affirmed by the court of
appeal and that disbursing allocations to them would amount to contempt of
court.
The state is also asking the court for an interim injunction
stopping the CBN and accountant-general from releasing local government funds
to the affected chairmen and councillors.
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