Osun ALGON Slams CBN Over LG Account Signatories

The Association of Local Governments of Nigeria, Osun State chapter, has accused the Central Bank of Nigeria of colluding with members of the All Progressives Congress to illegally open and operate bank accounts in the names of local government areas in the state.

Addressing a press conference held in Osogbo on Thursday, the state ALGON chairman, Sarafadeen Awotunde, flanked by other members of the association, alleged that the scheme was exposed when Mr Kunle Adegoke, an APC governorship aspirant and counsel to the party, on a live television programme, claimed that such accounts existed with APC members as signatories.

He said the development was “a brazen illegality” and “an attempt to divert Osun people’s money into private and political pockets.”

Awotunde said, “On the 28th of August, 2025, during a live broadcast of the ARISE TV Morning Show, Mr Kunle Adegoke openly admitted that the Central Bank of Nigeria has opened accounts in the names of local government councils in Osun State, and that the signatories to those accounts are not the legitimate civil servants but members of the APC recruited to claim local government civil service positions and offices illegally,” Awotunde declared.

Awotunde referenced the law as stipulating that only statutory civil servants such as Heads of Local Government Administration, Directors of Administration, and Directors of Finance are the recognized signatories to council accounts.

“Throughout the democratic world, politicians do not sign government checks,” he added.

He further held that the APC council chairmen lacked legitimacy, citing judicial pronouncements that had voided their elections.

“Their purported election was nullified by the judgment of the Federal High Court sitting in Osogbo on 30th November, 2022, a judgment that was further affirmed by the Court of Appeal in Akure on 13th June, 2025. That is the settled law. They remain sacked,” he emphasised.

He further claimed that officials of the Osogbo branch of the CBN allegedly turned away the genuine civil servants when they attempted to open the local government accounts, while accepting APC members as signatories.

“This action is a brazen illegality, a disregard for subsisting court judgments, an infraction against banking and public account rules, and a direct threat to the welfare of the people of Osun State whose funds are at stake,” he stated.

To back their claims, ALGON presented certified documents, including regulations prescribing statutory signatories to LG accounts, withdrawal of certificates of return earlier issued to the sacked APC chairmen by the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission, valid certificates of return issued to ALGON leaders in February 2025, and the two court judgments affirming their legitimacy.

ALGON also queried why Osun State appeared to be singled out by the federal authorities in the disbursement of local government funds.