President Bola Tinubu’s directive ordering the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to reverse the freezing of an Osun State Government account has triggered fresh political controversy, with opposition parties questioning the president’s explanation, lawyers and civil society groups backing the intervention, the Osun State Government dragging the commission to court, and scores of Nigerians on social media demanding the resignation or removal of the EFCC Chairman, Ola Olukoyede.
The EFCC on Wednesday directed that no money be withdrawn from the Osun State Government’s statutory allocation account as part of an ongoing investigation.
The anti-graft agency, in a statement, said the action followed suspicious movement of funds amid an ongoing investigation into alleged fraudulent handling of about N11billion in Ecology Funds, Intervention Funds and Federal Account Allocation Committee allocations.
Tinubu, in a personally signed statement on Thursday, directed the anti-graft agency to immediately approach the court to vacate the order freezing the account and discontinue the action, saying although he was yet to be fully briefed on the circumstances surrounding the case, the timing of the restriction was inappropriate given the August 15 Osun governorship election.
Reversing the agency’s decision, Tinubu, in the statement titled ‘President Tinubu Directs EFCC To Vacate The Court Order Freezing Osun Government Account’, said he felt “deeply embarrassed not by the EFCC’s exercise of its mandate backed by a court order, but by the timing of the agency’s action.”
The President said no action by any federal institution should create the impression that the Federal Government was attempting to influence the outcome of the poll.
“Osun State is only a few days away from its gubernatorial election. Therefore, nothing ought to be done to give an impression that the EFCC or indeed any other agency of the Federal Government is being used to interfere with the election,” the statement partly read.
“I am not in the slightest doubt that the timing of the action of EFCC is inauspicious,” Tinubu said, adding that while anti-corruption agencies must remain independent, preserving public confidence in the credibility and fairness of elections was paramount.
“Accordingly, I have directed the EFCC to immediately proceed to the court to vacate the order and discontinue whatever action it has instituted against the Osun State Government in this regard,” he added.
The directive followed the EFCC’s decision to restrict one of the state’s statutory allocation accounts over an investigation into the alleged diversion and laundering of about N11bn.
Defending the action earlier on Thursday, the EFCC’s Director of Public Affairs, Wilson Uwujaren, said the commission acted under Sections 34 of the EFCC Act and 7(6) of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, which empowered it to place a temporary restriction on suspicious accounts for up to 72 hours before obtaining a court order where necessary.
Uwujaren insisted the commission did not freeze all Osun State accounts but only placed a temporary restriction on one statutory account after detecting what it described as suspicious transactions.
He disclosed that investigations into the state began in March and that intelligence gathered from August 2 necessitated urgent intervention to preserve public funds, adding that similar action was taken in Edo State before its governorship election.
The EFCC maintained that its action was unrelated to politics and was purely driven by its statutory anti-corruption mandate.
