There was intense legal drama at the Federal High Court in Abuja as the Osun State Government challenged the transfer of a suit from the Osogbo Division to the Abuja Division.
The case, filed by Osun Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Oluwole Jimi-Bada, seeks to restrain the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Accountant General of the Federation, and the Attorney-General of the Federation from opening accounts for APC chairmen elected in 2022, whom the state insists were sacked by a subsisting judgment.
The Federal High Court in Osogbo had earlier ordered parties to maintain the status quo and adjourned the case till November 2025. However, at the request of the Attorney-General of the Federation, the matter was transferred to Abuja for expeditious hearing by a vacation judge. At Monday’s proceedings before Justice Emeka Nwite, plaintiff’s lawyer, Musibau Adetunbi (SAN), filed two motions on notice challenging the jurisdiction of the Abuja court to hear the matter and seeking to set aside the Chief Judge’s fiat authorising the transfer.
The state argued that the transfer violated a May 28 vacation notice by the Chief Judge which allowed only Abuja, Lagos, and Port Harcourt to handle urgent cases during the vacation, contending that the matter should have been heard in Lagos and not Abuja. The plaintiff further claimed that the Chief Judge’s directive favoured the Attorney-General of the Federation and questioned his impartiality, citing his previous role as lead counsel in politically sensitive cases involving Osun and the PDP.
Osun also alleged that the AGF created a “self-induced urgency” to justify the transfer, insisting that the APC chairmen were not running the affairs of local governments in the state and that hearing the matter after vacation would not render it nugatory. The plaintiff is seeking orders to set aside the transfer, discontinue the case against the AGF in favour of a fresh suit at the Supreme Court, and stay proceedings pending determination of that suit.
Counsel to the AGF, Chief Akin Olujimi (SAN), disputed claims of service of the discontinuance motion and maintained that proceedings could not be halted without a formal court order. Counsel to the CBN, Dr. Muritala Abdulrasheed (SAN), and counsel to the Accountant General, Tajudeen Oladoja (SAN), both urged the court to proceed with hearing the matter during vacation to avoid rendering it academic.
After hearing arguments, Justice Nwite adjourned the case to September 22, 2025, for hearing of all pending applications. The Osun Government’s suit seeks an interim injunction restraining the CBN and Accountant General from opening or operating local government accounts for the APC chairmen and councillors removed by the court, as well as from disbursing statutory allocations to them.
