Osun $13.9m Arbitration Debt: Adeleke, APC trade blame over restrictions on state accounts - The Guardian Nigeria News
The camps of Governor Ademola Adeleke and the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) have traded blame over a court order freezing Osun State Government bank accounts over a $13.9 million arbitration award.
Justice D.E. Osiagor of the Federal High Court, Lagos, had ordered commercial banks to place a “Post No Debit” restriction on accounts operated by the Osun State Government in favour of Gamji Nigeria Company Limited.
The order followed an application filed by Gamji through its counsel, Yunus AbdulSalam (SAN), in suit marked FHC/L/CS/1233/2026.
A Certified True Copy (CTC) of the ruling showed that the company is seeking to preserve $13,924,343.32 and N157.5 million awarded to it after an arbitration proceeding arising from water infrastructure projects in Ilesa West Local Council.
Financial institutions affected include GT Bank, Access Bank, First Bank, Zenith Bank, UBA, Ecobank, Fidelity, Stanbic IBTC, Sterling Bank, Union Bank and Wema Bank, among others.
According to the affidavit filed in support of the motion, the dispute stemmed from two contracts awarded to Gamji by Osun State Government in June 2017 for water infrastructure works under a Federal Ministry of Finance-facilitated Islamic Development Bank loan.
The projects involved construction of transmission mains, booster pump stations (Slot 1) and water reservoirs (Slot 2) for Ilesa West Water Supply and Sanitation Project.
Meanwhile, the order has triggered political brickbats as an APC chieftain, Akin Adeyi, accused the Adeleke administration of lacking integrity and allowing the water project case to deteriorate, insinuating financial mishandling.
But Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Bureau of Social Services, Bello Sheriff, described the court order as a legacy matter predating Adeleke.
Sheriff said the contract was awarded during former Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s administration, while former Governor Gboyega Oyetola’s administration terminated it, leading to litigation. Both administrations were APC.
Director of Media and Information, Osun APC, Kola Olabisi, said: “Governance is a continuum. Any government in place at any particular point in time inherits assets and liabilities. Apportioning blame on the past administration(s) by the incumbent government is misplaced. In view of this, the Governor Ademola Adeleke-led administration should devise a means of carrying its cross.”
The opposition said Adeleke’s government lacked proactiveness to have watched the matter linger until accounts were frozen.
However, the Osun State government, yesterday, said it had filed an application before a Federal High Court, Lagos, to set aside the ex-parte order awarding payment of $13.9 million to Gamji Nigeria Company Limited and Post-No-Debits to all its bank accounts.
In a statement, the state’s Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Kolapo Alimi, hinted that the application for setting aside the order was filed before the court on October 2, 2026.
According to the statement, the court order was a product of deceit and substantial non-disclosure of material facts to the court, stressing that the arbitration award it sought to enforce was also fraught with several irregularities, which had prompted the state government’s legal team to approach the High Court of Lagos State to set aside the award.
The statement stated that the purported award, which the ex-parte order of September 9, 2026 referenced, does not exist as there was no arbitral award made against Osun State government in July 2024.
