By Barely a week after Governor Ademola Adeleke’s re-election, a fresh flashpoint has opened between his government and the opposition APC, this time centred on who controls Osun’s 30 local government secretariats.
The State’s Alarm
The dispute traces back to a warning from the state government itself. The Commissioner for Information, Kolapo Alimi, had raised concerns that certain stakeholders were plotting to instigate unrest at local government councils and motor parks in the days following the August 15 governorship poll.
APC’s Counter
The Osun chapter of the APC, led by its chairman Tajudeen Lawal, has read that alarm very differently. In a statement released through the party’s Director of Media and Information, Kola Olabisi, Lawal cautioned Governor Adeleke against any move that could reignite political tension in the state, arguing that if the government genuinely holds credible intelligence about planned attacks, the proper course is to hand it to security agencies rather than air it publicly in a way that could itself heighten anxiety.
Central to Lawal’s concern is the current occupancy of council premises. He pointed out that local administrations aligned with the APC-backed Association of Local Governments of Nigeria, known as ALGON, are presently in charge of council secretariats across the state, and he wants police protection extended to those officials regardless of their party affiliation. As he put it, nobody should be attacked, intimidated, or forcibly removed under the guise of political disagreement.
A Reference to Past Grievances
Lawal also invoked what he called the treatment previously meted out to Remi Abass, using it as a cautionary example of the kind of confrontation he does not want repeated. He framed his appeal not as a partisan complaint but as a broader plea for restraint, reminding the governor that his mandate extends to residents who did not vote for him as much as to those who did.
What’s at Stake
Beneath the back and forth lies a familiar pattern in Nigerian state politics after a contested election: control of local government machinery often becomes the next battleground once the governorship result is settled, since council chairmen wield real administrative and financial authority at the grassroots. With ALGON-aligned officials currently holding those seats and a governor freshly returned to office on the Accord platform, the APC’s public intervention looks less like a response to a hypothetical threat and more like an attempt to pre-empt any post-election reshuffling of local power before it happens.
Whether the state government’s original alarm reflected a genuine security threat or was itself read by the opposition as a pretext remains unresolved. What is clear is that the fight over Osun’s political future has moved, for now, from the collation centres to the council secretariats.
