The Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Osun State chapter, has cautioned against alleged attempts to fast-track hearings in the ongoing local government crisis using vacation judges, warning that it will resist any move to subvert justice.
The union’s state president, Dr. Kehinde Nathaniel Ogungbangbe, made this known on Monday during a press conference at the Festus Oyebade Olowogboyega NULGE Secretariat, Osogbo.
Ogungbangbe, in an address titled “Withholding of Local Government Allocation Since February 2025 Till Date in Osun State,” accused certain interests of plotting to use the Abuja vacation court to undermine earlier court rulings.
He recalled that the Osun State government, on May 12, 2025, filed a suit at the Federal High Court to protect local government allocations, after which the court ordered all parties to maintain the status quo. However, he alleged that attempts were later made to open accounts for sacked officials to divert funds until the Court of Appeal halted the move on June 13.
“Now, months later, the 3rd Defendant – the Office of the Chief Law Officer of the Federation – has suddenly woken up, crying urgency and demanding that this matter be rushed and heard in Abuja during the Court vacation. We ask: Why the rush? Why Abuja? Why now?” Ogungbangbe queried.
Describing the urgency as “self-created,” he argued that most defendants had failed to act after being served in May, only to suddenly seek a vacation hearing in August.
“Fellow Nigerians, we smell a plot. A plot to use the Abuja vacation court to give through the back door what the Court of Appeal has already denied. But we say today: Justice cannot be ambushed,” he warned.
The NULGE president stressed that the funds at stake belong to the local governments and, by extension, to the ordinary people of Osun State. He urged the judiciary to resist pressure and insisted that any attempt to “rob the people through legal shortcuts” would be lawfully resisted.
