Note: This is my personal legal analysis. I’m not a judge in this case, and I can’t say what Justice Adefunmilola Demi-Ajayi will decide. What follows is a breakdown of the issues, arguments, and likely direction based on the pleadings and prior judgments.
I’ve been following Suit No. FHC/OS/CS/147/2025 at the Federal High Court in Osogbo, where reinstated APC local government chairmen and councillors are seeking an extension of their tenure. Judgment will be delivere tomorrow 21 May 2026, and the outcome will determine the immediate future of local government administration in Osun State.
The claimants are the chairmen and councillors elected on 15 October 2022 under the APC. They are asking the court for four key reliefs. First, a declaration that their three-year tenure should run from February 2025 when they actually resumed office, not from October 2022. Second, that OSSIEC could not validly conduct another election on 22 February 2025 while their tenure was still subsisting. Third, an order restraining Governor Ademola Adeleke, OSSIEC, and other defendants from removing them before 19 February 2028. Fourth, a declaration that the directive from the Attorney General of the Federation curtailing their tenure to October 2025 is unconstitutional.
Their argument is straightforward: since they were not allowed to assume office until February 2025 after the Court of Appeal’s judgment of 10 February 2025, the law should treat that as the commencement date of their tenure.
On the other side, the defendants, the Osun State Government, the Attorney General of Osun State, OSSIEC, the Inspector General of Police, and the Attorney General of the Federation are pushing back strongly. Their main position is that tenure for elected local government officials is fixed by law and cannot be extended by the courts. They rely on the Osun State Local Government Administration Law and the OSIEC Law 2022, both of which provide for a fixed three-year term calculated from the date of election.
They also argue that the October 2022 elections that produced the APC chairmen were nullified by the Federal High Court on 30 November 2022, and that decision was upheld by the Court of Appeal on 13 January 2025 and again on 13 June 2025. According to the defence, no court has ever validly reinstated these officials, and the APC’s reliance on the 10 February 2025 Court of Appeal judgment is a misreading of what that court decided. The defence further contends that by filing this suit, the claimants have admitted that their tenure expired in October 2025.
From my review of the pleadings and the arguments reported so far, three legal issues stand out for the court to resolve.
The first is the commencement date of the three-year tenure under Section 7(1) of the 1999 Constitution and Section 91 of the Osun OSIEC Law 2022. The claimants say it should run from the actual assumption of office, while the defendants insist it runs from the date of election.
The second issue is whether a court can extend the tenure of an elected official. Nigerian case law is clear on this point. In Attorney General of Abia State v. Attorney General of the Federation and Ladoja v. INEC, the courts held that tenure is statutory and time-bound, and that time lost due to illegal removal is not automatically added back unless the statute provides for it.
The third issue is the validity of the 22 February 2025 local government elections conducted by OSSIEC. If the court finds that the APC tenure was still running, those elections would be invalid. If it finds that the tenure ended in October 2025, then the PDP officials elected in February 2025 are the lawful officeholders.
Looking at the trajectory of Nigerian jurisprudence, I find it unlikely that the court will grant tenure elongation to February 2028. The courts have consistently refused to extend fixed political tenures, even in cases of illegal removal. The defence’s argument that the suit is “unknown to the constitution” aligns with this line of authority. On the question of legality, the Osun State Government argues that the continued occupation of the council secretariats by the APC chairmen is illegal, relying on the 30 November 2022 judgment and the Court of Appeal’s decision of 13 June 2025. The APC, however, maintains that they are in office based on the 10 February 2025 judgment.
My assessment is that the court will likely dismiss the suit and uphold that the tenure expired in October 2025. If that happens, the legal implication is that the PDP officials elected on 22 February 2025 are the lawful chairmen and councillors. But I must be clear: this is a legal analysis based on the pleadings and reported arguments up to September 2026. Until Justice Demi-Ajayi delivers the judgment tomorrow 21 May 2026, it remains a prediction.
When the judgment comes, there are three things I’ll be watching closely. First, how the court interprets the relationship between the 10 February 2025 and 13 June 2025 Court of Appeal judgments. Second, whether the court addresses the “time lost” argument for elected officials. Third, what order, if any, the court makes on the validity of the February 2025 LG elections.
This case goes beyond Osun. It will restate the limits of judicial power in altering the electoral calendar and the sanctity of fixed tenures in our democracy. Whatever the outcome, it will shape how parties and state governments approach local government disputes going forward.
Amb. Yusuf Tunde Olanrewaju (USELAW) writes from Odo-Otin, Osun State.
