By Augustine Ehikioya
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has directed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to immediately vacate a court order freezing the accounts of the Osun State Government.
In a statement he personally signed, the President said the timing of the EFCC’s action was “inauspicious” with the Osun gubernatorial election only days away.
“It has come to my notice that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) obtained a court order on August 5, 2026, freezing the accounts of the Osun State Government,” Tinubu stated.
“I must state that I feel 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… 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 President reiterated his commitment to allowing anti-corruption agencies to operate independently and “without fear or favour, or political interference.”
He noted that since assuming office he has “deliberately refrained from directing or interfering in the operational activities of the EFCC or any other investigative or prosecutorial agency” because strong institutions are “indispensable to democratic good governance and the rule of law.”
“While I am yet to be fully apprised of the facts which informed the action of EFCC in approaching the court… I am not in the slightest doubt that the timing of the action of EFCC is inauspicious, and therefore I feel compelled to intervene,” he said.
Citing the “overriding public interest in preserving public confidence and the integrity, credibility, and fairness of our democratic process,” Tinubu issued a direct order to the Commission.
“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,” the statement read.
The President said every action taken by a federal institution is usually “credited to me, as the President, even when I may not have had any prior knowledge of the action.”
The EFCC obtained the court order on August 5, 2026, while Osun State is scheduled to hold its governorship election in the coming days.
