There were legal fireworks on Monday at the Federal High Court (FHC), Abuja, where the Osun State Government is challenging the transfer of a suit from the Osogbo division in Osun State to the Abuja Division.
Osun State had resisted all efforts by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Accountant General of the Federation and Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) who are 1st, 2nd and 3rd defendant respectively, to get expeditious hearing in the matter by a vacation court.
The suit originally filed in Osun State by the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Oluwole Jimi-Bada, is asking the court to restrain the CBN from opening accounts for the chairmen elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2022 whom the state government affirmed have been sacked by the same Federal High Court, Osogbo.
The Federal High Court, Osogbo had earlier this year ordered parties in the case to maintain the status quo, while the case was adjourned till November 2025.
But following a request by the AGF, the case was moved to Abuja for “expeditious hearing” by a vacation judge, a move the plaintiff argued is not in the interest of justice.
At Monday’s proceedings before Justice Emeka Nwite, a vacation judge of the Federal High Court, Abuja, plaintiff’s lawyer, Musibau Adetunbi (SAN) informed the court that the plaintiff filed two motions on notice, challenging the jurisdiction of the FHC, Abuja to hear the suit transferred from the Osogbo division on the orders of the Chief Judge (CJ) of the FHC, Justice John Tsoho.
Specifically, the state government is asking the court to set “aside the purported fiat said to have been given at the instance of the Chief Judge of the court contained in a letter dated August 21, 2025 signed by one Joshua Ibrahim Aji, a Special Assistant to the Chief Judge”.
Among the grounds upon which the motion was predicated is the claim that the FHC CJ failed to obey his own directive on how and where vacation cases would be heard.
Citing a May 28 vacation notice issued by the CJ, the plaintiff pointed out that the Court will not be completely shut down during this period, as such, the three core Divisions of the Court will be open to the general public to attend to only matters of extreme urgency.
“Consequently, the litigating public will be at liberty to approach only the under-listed functional Courts located nearest to them. i. Abuja; ii. Lagos; iii. Port-Harcourt” Obvious from the above is that the only vacation Judge who could have heard this suit is the vacation Judge who is sitting in Lagos and not Abuja,” the plaintiff argued.
The plaintiff submitted that the AGF “who caused the case file of this suit to be forcefully moved to Abuja”, and the the CJ cannot claim ignorance of the said Vacation Notice of May 28, 2025, adding that the attention of the CJ and AGF were drawn to this fact in the Plaintiff’s solicitor letter dated August 14, 2025.
“The Honourable Chief Judge, who at his instance the said letter of August 21, 2025 was written, is not just a judicial officer of this Honourable Court but the number 1 judicial officer of this Honourable Court. Thus, His Lordship’s oath of office demands that he should, at all times, hold the scale of justice evenly between parties across the divide.
“The current Honourable Attorney General of the Federation (HAGF) at whose instance the letter for transfer of the case file was written, was, prior to his appointment as the HAGF, was the lead counsel in a petition filed by the former Governor Gboyega Oyetola and the All Progressives Congress (APC) against the incumbent Governor of Osun State and the PDP.
“He was equally the lead counsel in the Presidential Election Petition filed by the PDP and its candidate against the incumbent President of Nigeria and his political party, the APC. All these are facts within public knowledge and which the Honourable Chief Judge ought to have taken judicial notice of”, plaintiff told Justice Nwite.
Besides, the Osun State Government claimed that by the affidavit of urgency filed on behalf of the AGF and a letter written on his behalf by Chief Akin Olujimi (SAN) “the AGF made a categorical statement that the Chairmen and Councillors elected under the platform of APC are the ones running the affairs of Local Government Councils in Osun State and that failure to hear this matter within the vacation period would render the case nugatory”.
But, Adetunji in a letter to the CJ, stated unequivocally that failure to hear the suit during vacation would not render this suit nugatory and that the said purported APC Chairmen and Councillors are not the officials running the affairs of the Local Government Councils in Osun State.
“In the said letter of August 21, 2025, His Lordship, the Honourable Chief Judge cast his lot with the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation when his Lordship stated that the case file be transferred to Abuja “in order to save it from becoming nugatory.
“Obvious from the affidavit of urgency filed by the office of the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation, counter affidavit to the affidavit of urgency filed on behalf of the Plaintiff and letters written by learned senior counsel to parties across the divide is that the office of the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation deliberately created a self-induced urgency.
“From all the grounds stated above, and applying the doctrine of a reasonable man to the justice of this suit, it is obvious that a reasonable man is bound to come to the conclusion that the Honourable Chief Judge favours the 3rd Defendant to the detriment of the Plaintiff. Equally, a reasonable man is bound to come to the conclusion that the case file of this suit is being moved to Abuja for a purpose other than the purpose of justice,” the motion paper said.
Plaintiff is therefore praying the court for an order setting aside the fiat transferring the suit from Osogbo division to Abuja division of the Federal High Court by the CJ vide a letter dated August 21 and signed by his personal assistant, Joshua Ibrahim.
Plaintiff further prayed for another order setting aside the directive of the CJ that the matter be heard by a vacation judge and that the court should decline jurisdiction to hear the matter during its annual vacation and returning of the case file back to the Osogbo judicial division of the Federal High Court.
Meanwhile, the plaintiff’s lawyer informed the court that the second motion on notice, was for the discontinuance of the case against the AGF and Minister of Justice.
“Sequel to the affidavit of urgency filed by the AGF on August 13, it became obvious that he is willing and at the verge of paying the allocation of the Constituent Local Government Councils of the plaintiff’s state to the illegal and sacked APC Chairmen and Councilors.
“Consequent on the above, the plaintiff is desirous of initiating and prosecuting a fresh suit against the 3rd defendant (AGF) at the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
“That, some of the facts, questions and issues to be tabled at the apex court against the AGF would be identical to the facts, questions and issues before the trial court in the instant suit and hence, the need to discontinue the suit against him”, the plaintiff stated.
However, in another motion on notice filed on August 26, the plaintiff prayed the court for an order staying further proceedings in the suit pending the hearing and determination of the suit numbered SC/CV/773/2025 between the Attorney General of Osun state and the AGF at the Supreme Court.
One of the grounds of the motion is that “the AGF is not willing to obey, abide by or comply with valid and subsisting decision of the Court of Appeal but rather caused an affidavit of urgency to be filed before the court on August 13.”
The plaintiff said “the AGF’s letter of August 26 and the affidavit of urgency show that he is willing and at the verge of paying the allocation of the Constituents Local Government Councils of the plaintiff state to illegal and sacked APC Chairmen and Councilors.”
According to the plaintiff, “the brazen decision of the AGF necessitated him to approach the Supreme Court to determine the propriety or otherwise of the Federation’s action in paying statutory allocation of the Local Government Councils in Osun state to officials of the APC, who have been removed from office by a subsisting judgement of the trial court which was affirmed by the Court of Appeal in view of the position of the AGF in the affidavit of urgency that the purported APC elected Chairmen and Councilors are the ones running the affairs of the Local Government Councils in Osun and will be paid the said allocation, among others.”
He added that, “all the processes have been duly served on the defendants” a position which counsel to the AGF, Chief Akin Olujimi, SAN disputed, saying that, he had not been served with the motion on notice for the discontinuance of the plaintiff’s case against his client.
Olujimi, however, said even if the notice of discontinuance was duly served on him, it could not stop the proceedings of the day until the court made an order to that effect and added that such notice must be attached with an affidavit of service.
Counsel to the CBN, Dr. Muritala Abdulrasheed (SAN) informed the court that the AGF wrote to the Chief Judge for the matter to be heard expeditiously by a vacation judge.
He told the Court that the first Defendant filed seven processes challenging the plaintiff’s motion for stay of proceedings, and against the motion challenging the administrative power of the CJ to transfer the matter from Osun to Abuja Division of the Federal High Court, among others.
On his part, counsel to the Accountant General of the Federation, Tajudeen Oladoja (SAN) said, if the matter is not heard during the court’s vacation, it would become an academic exercise and prayed the court to hear all the processes filed in the matter together.
After listening to the submissions of counsel in the matter, the trial Judge, Justice Nwite adjourned the case till September 22, 2025 for hearing of all the applications filed in the matter.
The suit, which was filed on behalf of Osun State by the state Attorney General, Jimi-Bada, seeks to restrain the CBN and the AGF from opening and maintaining accounts for the local government chairmen elected in October 2022 under the APC.
The chairmen in question were elected in an election that only featured candidates from the APC.
Specifically, the plaintiff wants “an interim injunction restraining the defendants from opening, operating, or maintaining local government accounts in favour of the Chairmen and Councillors who have been sacked or removed from office by a subsisting judgment of the Federal High Court.”
Another relief seeks to restrain the CBN and Accountant General of the Federation “from disbursing allocations to the sacked APC Chairmen and Councillors.”
Alex Enumah
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