The Osun State Local Government Service Commission has redeployed five senior career officials known as Heads of Local Government Administration to new duty posts, as tension continues over who controls local government areas in the state.
A letter announcing the redeployments, signed by the commission’s Permanent Secretary, Mudashir Oyedeji, was obtained in Osogbo, the capital of Osun State in southwestern Nigeria. The document is dated Monday, 26 January 2025.
Although the commission did not give reasons for the changes, one of the councils listed for a new career head is Boripe Local Government Area, a council in Osun State where Adegboyega Oyetola, a former governor of Osun State, comes from.
Okay News reports that the letter shows all five officials were moved from Local Council Development Authorities, which are administrative council structures, to main local government areas.
One of the postings listed Yakubu Adekunle Oni, who was serving in Irewole North East Local Council Development Authority, as redeployed to Boripe Local Government Area.
The letter also listed the five affected officers as Bolaji Wasiu Ayoola, Emmanuel Oluwole Ademokoya, Adebisi Lateef Kayode, Yakubu Adekunle Oni, and Isaac Tope Akinwumi.
In the document, their current duty posts were stated as Ife South West Local Council Development Authority, Oriade South Local Council Development Authority, Ede East Local Council Development Authority, Irewole North East Local Council Development Authority, and Egbedore South Local Council Development Authority.
Their new duty posts were listed as Ola-Oluwa Local Government Area, Atakumosa East Local Government Area, Oriade Local Government Area, Boripe Local Government Area, and Ife East Central Local Council Development Authority.
The letter directed the officers to assume their new roles immediately. It did not explain what would happen to the career heads already overseeing the councils where the newly deployed officers were posted.
The deployments have drawn mixed reactions because they come during a political dispute between the Osun State Government and the All Progressives Congress (APC), Nigeria’s main party, over the control of local councils in the state.
Supporters of Governor Ademola Adeleke, the elected leader of Osun State, dismissed claims from APC supporters that the redeployments were an attempt to shift control of the councils away from political office holders currently running them. They argued that the state government, as the employer of civil servants, has the authority to deploy staff when it considers it necessary.
The argument over local government control has been ongoing, with both sides trading accusations over what they describe as illegal occupation of council offices by chairmen and councillors elected on the APC platform.
In a state broadcast on Monday, Governor Adeleke said the tenure of the APC-elected chairmen and councillors ended on Saturday, 25 October 2025.
The APC rejected that position, claiming its elected chairmen and councillors were forced out of office in 2022 and later restored by the Court of Appeal, Akure Division, in Akure, the capital of Ondo State in southwestern Nigeria, on Monday, 10 February 2025. The party also said the affected officials are already in court, asking for a judicial decision on when their tenure should be counted from.
