The Oyo State High Court in Ibadan has turned down an attempt by sacked All Progressives Congress (APC) local government chairmen in Osun State to unfreeze disputed council funds currently held in accounts with the United Bank for Africa.
The ruling was delivered on Thursday by Justice Ladiran Akintola, who dismissed the application and held that the former chairmen had no legal footing to intervene in the case.
The applicants, listed as “Persons Affected” in their motion, had approached the court in Suit No. I/1149/2025: Attorney General of Osun State & Anor v. UBA PLC, asking for permission to challenge an ex parte order that froze the accounts on 26 September 2025.
They also sought to have the order reversed, arguing that the continued freeze was disrupting governance at the local level and, in their view, ran contrary to the 1999 Constitution.
When the matter came up, neither the applicants nor the main parties were present in court. Musibau Adetunbi, SAN, appeared alongside E. Y. Ajayi and D. G. Egunjobi for the Osun State Attorney General, while Oluwatomiwa Fadeyi appeared for UBA.
In a firm ruling, Justice Akintola said the application lacked substance. He explained that the sacked chairmen had already withdrawn their earlier application to be joined in the case, which meant they remained outsiders to the proceedings.
Without any legally recognised interest in the frozen accounts, the court held that they had no standing to ask for the ex parte order to be lifted or for the entire suit to be struck out.
The judge added that the withdrawal of their joinder application was itself an admission that they had no enforceable claim to the money. With that, he dismissed the application completely.
After the decision, Adetunbi, SAN, thanked the court for what he described as a clear and well-considered ruling. He also notified the court of plans to obtain a cleaner copy of the Supreme Court judgment delivered on 5 December 2025 in SC/CV/773/2025: Attorney General of Osun State v. Attorney General of the Federation, which he said would help guide their next steps.
Justice Akintola adjourned the substantive matter to 18 December 2025 for mention.