The Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Dr. Adegboyega Oyetola, has accused Governor Ademola Adeleke of spreading propaganda and falsehoods to mask what he described as administrative failure and disregard for court rulings.
In a statement issued on Wednesday by Dr. Bolaji Akinola, Special Adviser to Minister, said Adeleke’s recent claims over alleged withholding of local government funds were a “desperate attempt to deflect attention from glaring incompetence and serial abuse of the judicial process.”
He dismissed the governor’s allegation that Minister Oyetola was responsible for any disruption in local government financing, insisting that any delays stem from the Osun State Government’s legal actions.
According to him, the Adeleke administration had burdened the courts with “frivolous and ill-conceived lawsuits” in a failed bid to overturn settled judicial decisions.
“No serious government sabotages its own legal standing and then seeks scapegoats for the consequences,” Akinola said.
He further accused the governor of previously paralysing local government operations by instigating a prolonged strike by council workers, describing Adeleke’s current claim that councils remain inactive as “a blatant falsehood.”
“The local government secretariats are open and functioning. Services continue to run, workers are back to their posts, and council administrations are carrying out their statutory responsibilities. The narrative of paralysis exists only in the imagination of a governor using falsehood to seek public sympathy,” he added.
Akinola referenced a Court of Appeal judgement delivered on February 10, 2025, which he said reinstated elected local government chairmen in Osun State. He noted that the judgement was not appealed by the state government and therefore remains final and binding.
“The continued agitation by Governor Adeleke represents a deliberate refusal to accept judicial authority,” he stated.
On the tenure of the reinstated chairmen, Akinola maintained that they were elected for a three-year term and were allegedly removed illegally shortly after assuming office.
He said any contrary claims amounted to ignorance or deliberate misinformation, noting that the issue of tenure is currently before the courts.
He also cited a Supreme Court ruling of July 11, 2024, which granted financial autonomy to local governments nationwide, affirming their status as an independent tier of government and barring state governors from dissolving elected councils or imposing caretaker administrations.
“Adeleke should perish the thought of interfering with local government administration in Osun State. The councils are autonomous, lawful, and operational,” he said.
Akinola also rejected claims that Minister Oyetola was influencing the Nigeria Police, describing the allegations as false and irresponsible.
“The police operate under established institutional command structures and cannot be privately controlled by any individual minister. Adeleke should stop misleading the public, stop manufacturing conspiracies, and stop whipping up sentiment to cover manifest ineptitude. Governance is not theatre, and Osun people deserve facts, not fiction,” he said.
He concluded that Osun’s local government administrations remain lawful, autonomous, functional, and protected by binding court judgements, arguing that “the only crisis confronting the system is a governor unwilling to accept legal reality.”
(NAN)
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