By James Bamgbose
The rule of law should serve as the foundation upon which all public office, power, and governance rest. Democracy gets under attack when some individuals begin to act as the law because they have some level of influence or have friends with the “federal might.”
In Osun State, the actions of the sacked local government chairmen and councillors reflect a disturbing disregard for law, logic, and the collective sanity of the people.
Let’s be clear from the beginning. The then-outgoing administration of Gboyega Oyetola hurriedly conducted a local government election just three months after losing his second term governorship election. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with him conducting the Election provided that he complied with the 2022 Electoral Act.
The timing was suspicious, and more importantly, the process violated the 2022 Electoral Act, which mandates a minimum of 365 days’ notice before elections. The Oyetola government provided just 60 days’ notice.
This glaring illegality didn’t go unchallenged. The electoral violation gave rise to two separate suits. The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the Action Peoples Party (APP) with suit no. FHC/ OS/CS/94/2022 and FHC/OS/CS/103/2022 respectively, independently approached the Federal High Court (FHC) in Osogbo, challenging the legitimacy of the hurriedly conducted local government polls.
In quick succession, both cases were decided in favour of the claimants. On November 25, 2022, the FHC ruled in the PDP’s case that the local government election was illegal and thereby nullified the purported outcomes and sacked the Yes or No Beneficiaries. Just five days later, on November 30, 2022, the court ruled in the APP case, also nullifying the election results and declaring the process unlawful due to noncompliance with the Electoral Act.
In the two verdicts, the court sacked the so-called APC elected chairmen and councillors. But in Nigeria, it’s rarely that simple. Instead of accepting the ruling and moving on, the sacked officials appealed.
The affected parties went to the Court of Appeal in Akure in December 2022 to appeal the two verdicts. January 13, 2025, the first major ruling came in respect to the APP suit, Appeal No. CA/AK/226M/2022.
The court dismissed the appeal outright for “want of prosecution,” a technical term meaning that the appellants had abandoned the case. The legal representative of the appellants wrote to the court stating that his clients had failed to communicate with him.
When an appeal is dismissed and no further legal challenge exists, the original judgment stands firm.
In this case, the November 30, 2022, judgment of the Federal High Court sacking the officials remains valid and binding. It is a judgment in rem, one that binds not just the parties involved but the entire world.
However, another twist emerged in February 2025. Just days before a fresh local government election set for February 22, 2025, the Court of Appeal ruled on the PDP suit.
Interestingly, this ruling did not address the substantive merits of the case; instead, the suit no FHC/ OS/CS/94/2022 was struck out on procedural grounds, that the suit had been filed prematurely. Meaning the PDP suit verdict at the Federal High Court now ceases to exist.
And so began the theatre of the absurd. Those who had been sacked in the APP case and whose appeal had been dismissed suddenly announced their return to power. They claimed reinstatement, without any binding judgment.
They organized press conferences and began storming council secretariats across Osun State, asserting that the appellate court had returned them to power and even attempted to disrupt the democratic process of electing a Council Chairmen and Councillors.
The drama intensified. APC leaders convened strategy meetings and heightened their campaign about their false narrative of judicial reinstatement and against the scheduled local government elections.
On Monday, February 17, 2025, just five days before the 2025 LG elections, the tensions boiled over into violence. A clash between APC and PDP loyalists led to several casualties, with multiple injuries and the loss of innocent lives.
In the aftermath of the violence came the most baffling part; the same APC elements quietly applied to relist the APP case they had earlier abandoned.
If a judgment had truly reinstated them, why were they returning to court to revive a case already dismissed? What were they trying to achieve by attempting to reopen a dead legal process?
However, it is believed that the whole embittered drama should come to an end after the Court of Appeal in Akure on Friday, the 13th of June, the Court of Appeal Akure answered them clearly.
Dismissing their application to relist the APP appeal, the court did more than rule on law, it issued a moral verdict. The choices of words of Justices particularly in the lead judgment place a heavy moral burden on the actors of the LG crisis particularly the 17th of February violence.
Justice Obioarh, in the lead judgment, stated unequivocally that the dismissal of the APP appeal meant that the FHC judgment stood as the legal authority on the matter. “There being no existing appeal against the judgment of the lower court,” he wrote, “the said judgment stands as the authority defining the state of affairs as it regards the status of the officers of the various Local Government Councils in Osun State.”
Justice Obioarh went further to state the failure of the appellants to diligently prosecute their case. He pointed out that the party and its members “went to sleep” for two years and only resurfaced with legal claims when their supposed tenure was already nearing its end. Such conduct, he said, cast serious doubts on the sincerity of their motives.
“If the 3rd Appellant/Applicant and her members who were elected as Chairmen and Councillors, and subsequently SACKED by the lower court, knew that the term of office they were elected to serve was three years, then it is inconceivable that they will go to slumber for two years. Having slept for two years within their supposed term of three years and by now the term is almost gone, one wonders what is the usefulness and utilitarian value of the appeal if restored?”
“Whatever made the 3rd Appellant/Applicant and her SACKED members to go to sleep for two years without worry and suddenly wake up after two years cannot be based on motives that are altruistic and in conformity with expeditious determination of the appeal, for even a right to fair hearing is expected to be exercised within a reasonable time as clearly stated in Section 36 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999.”
These two citations from the lead judgment confirm the status of the “October 2022 LG Election Beneficiaries ” as SACKED in the face of the law.
He concluded the lead judgment by saying, “It is therefore obvious to me that the 3rd Appellant is not serious about the diligent prosecution of this appeal and wants to Court in the sister appeal (Appeal No. CA/AK/270/2022) may only lead to confusion and this Court will resist such attempt to lure it to unwittingly sit on appeal or review its decision in Appeal No. CA/AK/270/2022.”
Pointing out the reason why after self-acclaimed “reinstatement” they went to court in an attempt to “LURE” the court to unwittingly “REVIEW” its decision in Appeal No. CA/AK/270/2022.
Justice Omoleye, concurring with the lead judgment, emphasized the futility of the game being played by the APC. She noted in her “reinforced remarks” that the fresh local government elections of February 22, 2025, and the swearing-in of new officials had overtaken the issue. “Relisting the appeal at this stage,” she stated, “would serve no practical purpose.”
“Critically, this Court had earlier delivered judgment on 10th February 2025 in Appeal No. CA/AK/270/2022, involving basically the same parties and addressing substantially the same issues. The said appeal has been dismissed. What is more, the fresh Local Government elections conducted on 22nd February 2025 and the swearing-in of new Chairmen and Councillors have overtaken the substratum of this dispute. Relisting the appeal at this stage would serve no practical purpose.” She wrote.
Yet, amid this judicial clarity, political confusion has persisted. It is as if the courts are speaking Latin and the Osun APC is hearing Greek. You can only wake the person who is asleep. You can’t wake someone who is pretending to be asleep.
What remains disturbing is the deliberate confusion spread by Osun APC actors who claimed to have been reinstated. Ignoring the academic law lecturer based abroad who created confusion amongst the APC through his “Obiter Dictum” claim on Omoleye JCA on her recognition of the 22 Feb LG election in the concurring judgment.
It is more concerning that at the centre of the whole misinterpretation of the law by the Osun APC is a SAN and a PhD in Law. This shows that academic knowledge and bar experience are not enough to stay noble even in the noble profession.
Sadly, the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, got caught in the crossfire of confusion. His public statement in support of the alleged reinstatement, despite clear legal evidence to the contrary, is disappointing.
He spoke from a place of misinformation and helped amplify a lie. Osun people deserve an apology from the AGF.
If he is a friend to the political crisis actors, he should understand the huge responsibility that lies on his shoulders as the Chief Law Officer. He should also ensure that he has full information and provide unbiased legal advice to the government.
At a time when public trust in the judiciary is under strain, his words, unfortunately, poured petrol on the fire.
What is particularly painful is that all of this could have been avoided had the rejected political actors chosen dignity over desperation. After losing power at the centre of state government, the attempt to entrench themselves in local government using illegal elections was nothing short of political sabotage.
Governor Ademola Adeleke deserves to be celebrated for how he carefully dealt with the situation caused by an angry mob still pained by their 2022/2023 poll rejection.
These actors attempted to resurface, all in a bid to hold on to local political machinery. Their behaviour was not about justice or due process; it was about control, about stalling Governor Ademola Adeleke’s grassroots reforms.
The judiciary has spoken with finality. There is no ambiguity. No court reinstated these men. Their only surviving and existing judgment (the APP ruling) sacked them. The PDP case, which they used as a façade, was struck out without addressing the core issue of legality. It was never a vindication.
The APC chairmen and councillors were reinstated but weren’t. Not in law. Not in fact. Not even in morality.
So, who misled them into thinking they had returned? Who instructed them to invade council offices? Who turned a preliminary dismissal into a false victory? Who advised the AGF wrongly? Who engineered the February 17 violence? Who told these men to ignore a judgment in rem?
At the heart of all this is one simple question that demands an honest answer, not just for the sake of the law, but for the sake of those who have been dragged through needless political confusion;
“WHO THEN REINSTATED THEM?”
• James Bamgbose writes from Igbajo, Boluwaduro Local Government, Osun State. He can be reached via [email protected]
