Osun state Governor, Senator Ademola Adeleke has said that self awarded tenure of All Progressives Congress (APC) local government Chairmen lapsed on October 22, 2025 and cannot be elongated under the constitution and precedents set by Supreme Court rulings.
The governor said while he respects local government autonomy, that does not translate to unelected APC chairmen with “expired self-awarded tenure hijacking council secretariats” and illegally handling public funds in contravention of state laws.
Adeleke noted: “Local government autonomy is not equal to unjustifiable seizure of local governments funds which are meant to pay local health workers, local teachers and local pensioners.
“I have been paying these local workers because local autonomy does not mean imposing avoidable hardship on the people”, the governor fired back at the state APC.
“The self awarded tenure which was an illegality in the first place came to an end last year.
“If truly we are in a democracy, unelected people cannot lay claim to local governments and even be tampering with public funds. In a truly practical democracy, you cannot elongate your tenure for a day without being arrested and jailed.
“In a democracy, the police authority will not give cover to unelected people and people with expired self awarded tenure to occupy the councils.
“The mere fact that these APC officials admitted that their tenure lapsed and had headed to court for elongation is enough for the police to withdraw cover and allow validly elected local government chairmen to assume office.
“If you admitted that your tenure has lapsed, what are you still doing at the local councils? If you had gone to court to seek tenure elongation, why must you still occupy the councils when the case has not even been heard?
“The fact that you file a case does not mean you have your tenure elongated. And your tenure cannot even be elongated because the constitution did not allow it. Osun APC are engaging in severe, criminal breach of the law and the constitution.”