Elected local government officials of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Osun State, under the Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON), have appealed to President Bola Tinubu to instruct the Accountant General of the Federation to caution the Controller of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in the state.
The appeal was made during a press conference held on Tuesday at the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs in Abere.
ALGON Chairman in Osun State, Sharafadeen Awotunde, emphasized that local government allocations must not be deposited into private accounts.
He stated that the address was on behalf of all the local government chairmen elected during the February 22, 2025, local government elections in the state.
According to him, the elected officials are not the signatories to the local government accounts.
He clarified that only the Director of Finance and the Head of Local Government Administration are recognized as signatories to the accounts.
ALGON urged President Tinubu, as the father of the nation, to ensure the Accountant General of the Federation adheres to due process.
The association called on the Accountant General to instruct the CBN Controller in Osogbo to engage only with the duly elected local government officials.
ALGON warned that any deviation from this directive could lead to unrest and instability in the state.
He said, “On getting there, we talked to the person we met at the CBN Osogbo about it, he promised to relay our message to the branch Controller of CBN about it but we are sure they knew the rightful owner of the form and legally backed council chairmen who are eligible to append their signatures. While we settle that one they gave us 8am today to come to their office.
“We arrived at the CBN quarter to 8 O’ clock to wait for the controller, we later learned thay she is inside her office, probably she went through the back door to her office and doesn’t want to attend to us, we are harmless, those of us who are eligible for the form, we are about six of us.
“After a while, they start rushing to close the gate on the instruction of the controller. There was a behavior from a lady who is security operative from Mopol department, she utter words that are unprofessional, we have her recorded and we will take her matter up in due time. We informed her that probably she is not aware of the Appeal Court verdict which affirmed the sacking of Yes/No chairmen.
“What is happening in Osun is illegal, CBN don’t need to be embarrassing itself over this matter, we request that they should transfer the Osun Controller General if she feel she can’t do what is right.
“We the new elected chairmen are silent and we don’t make trouble, we appreciate all our civil servants, we don’t want anarchy, chaos in Osun State but enough is enough.”
“We appreciate our Governor for the fatherly and mature roles he played during the imbroglio. What the CBN Osun Controller has done is illegal by releasing even one form to those imposters. We appeal to Accountant-General of the Federation, Ministry of Finance to do what is right.”