President Bola Tinubu has ordered the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to vacate the order freezing the accounts of the Osun State Government.
In a statement he personally signed on Thursday, the president said while he was not opposed to the EFCC’s exercise of its statutory powers, the timing of the action raised some concerns.
The EFCC on Wednesday froze the account of the Osun State Government, citing alleged fraudulent handling of ecology funds, intervention funds and Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) account to the tune of N11 billion.
The anti-graft agency took the action ten days to the state’s governorship election.
Governor Ademola Adeleke of the Accord party is contesting against two major candidates: Munirudeen Bola Oyebamiji of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Najeem Salaam of the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
Adeleke, who addressed journalists in Osogbo, the state capital, said the freezing of the account was unconstitutional because no court order was obtained before the directive was issued.
But the EFCC explained that the state government’s account was frozen to save public funds from being looted.
The commission, in a statement by its spokesman, Dele Oyewale, said some officials of the state had earlier been quizzed by investigators of the commission, saying what precipitated the freezing was the unwarranted movement of funds from the accounts to different suspicious accounts since August 2, 2026.
I feel embarrassed – President
President Tinubu said he feels embarrassed by the EFCC action because the timing could create the impression that the Federal Government is interfering in the state’s forthcoming governorship election.
Tinubu said actions taken by federal institutions were often attributed to him as President, regardless of whether he had prior knowledge of them.
He said, ‘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.
‘This is so because every action taken by an institution of State, especially at the Federal level, is always credited to me, as the President, even when I may not have had any prior knowledge of the action.
‘Since assuming office, I have consistently maintained that anti-corruption and law enforcement agencies must be allowed to discharge their statutory responsibilities independently, professionally, without fear or favour, or political interference.
‘I have therefore deliberately refrained from directing or interfering in the operational activities of the EFCC or any other investigative or prosecutorial agency because I firmly believe that strong democratic institutions, operating within the confines of the law, are indispensable to democratic good governance and the rule of law.
‘As President, I am committed to allowing institutions of State to function and take any action they consider necessary in the interest of proper governance without the need for any prior approval. Indeed, that is why institutions are set up by law with clearly defined powers.
‘While I am yet to be fully apprised of the facts which informed the action of EFCC in approaching the court to obtain the said order freezing the Osun State Government account, I am not in the slightest doubt that the timing of the action of EFCC is inauspicious, and therefore I feel compelled to intervene.
‘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.
‘Based on the foregoing premise, I am duty-bound to issue a directive on this issue in consonance with the overriding public interest in preserving public confidence and the integrity, credibility, and fairness of our democratic process.
‘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.’
EFCC unfreezes account
Efforts to get an official update from the EFCC were futile as several calls to the spokesman of the anti-graft agency, Dele Oyewale, were not answered.
But a senior official at the commission confided in Daily Trust that another official letter has been sent to the management of the First Bank conveying the President’s directive to the bank.
The official, who did not want his name in print because he wasn’t authorised to speak, said: ‘A letter has been sent to the banker to remove the PND restriction on the state government’s account following Mr President’s directive. Nobody should view this from the perspective of the fact that EFCC is not independent.’
Lawyers, CSOs fault Tinubu’s directive
Human rights lawyer Inibehe Effiong said President Tinubu’s directive to the EFCC to unfreeze Osun State Government accounts undermined the commission’s independence and raised concerns about political interference.
‘Whatever decision the EFCC takes, they may have taken it as an independent arm of government. The President cannot be directing the unfreezing or freezing of accounts. Even though the EFCC is an agency of the executive arm of government, it is created as an independent agency under the law,’ Effiong said.
According to him, the EFCC Establishment Act does not confer supervisory authority on the President over the commission’s statutory responsibilities.
‘What this does is undermine the independence and integrity of the EFCC, and it speaks to political interference,’ he said.
Effiong questioned whether similar presidential directives had been issued in other investigations without public knowledge.
‘If the President is now giving directives in respect of the Osun matter, how many other cases has he given such directives that the public does not know about? We cannot simply trust the President to do what is right when he has a clear partisan interest in matters,’ he said.
Another lawyer, Victoria Adaji, urged the President to demonstrate impartiality by allowing the justice system to function without interference.
‘The President should prove to Nigerians that he is neutral by ensuring justice is served in matters that require so in the country,’ Adaji said.
She maintained that the EFCC’s statutory independence should have been respected.
‘The EFCC is an independent institution, and the President should have understood that better rather than interfering in the matter,’ she added.
Also reacting, Human Rights Lawyer, Udochukwu Onoh, questioned both the President’s authority to issue such a directive and the legal process through which the court granted the order freezing Osun State’s accounts.
Udochukwu also argued that the state government ought to have been given a fair hearing before the order was granted.
‘When we view it from the angle of infringement on fundamental human rights, how could a court grant such a motion without a fair hearing on both sides? The Osun State Government should have been invited to court and granted a fair hearing,’ he said.
He warned that even a temporary freeze on a state’s accounts could cripple governance and essential public services.
Describing the President’s intervention as political interference, Udochukwu said the EFCC should be allowed to discharge its statutory mandate without external influence.
‘Tinubu’s directive strange, eroding trust’
Also, a constitutional lawyer, Basil S. Kpenkpen, Esq., argued that the President’s directive has significant legal consequences for both the directing authority and the investigative Institution.
‘It’s very strange and undemocratic, the order constitutes a severe violation of the right to fair hearing under Section 36 of the 1999 Constitution, and it carries significant legal consequences for both the directing authority and the investigative institution.
‘What the Federal Government has done in law amounts to speculation, suspicion and doubt which cannot stand,’ the senior lawyer told one of our correspondents.
On his part, another senior lawyer, Peter Abang, called on the EFCC to put its boots on the ground and assure Nigerians of its independence and accountability in the fight against corruption in Nigeria.
According to him, the directive may have tainted the independent image of the commission, arguing that anyone would, after this event and a series of other actions taken by the EFCC, be justified to hold the view that the commission cannot do anything except as directed by the Executive.
But Mustafa Adedibu, another constitutional lawyer, said the president should be commended for dousing the tension in the state.
Adedibu said, ‘The directive by Mr President for the EFCC to unfreeze Osun State Government’s account is, in my honest opinion, supposed to be a bit of relief to the nation as a whole.
‘The action of the EFCC to freeze the account of the state, however well-intended, is truly ill-timed, as the President rightly posited, and the President has just done the right thing.’
Also, civil society organisations criticised President Tinubu’s directive, warning that the intervention could undermine the anti-graft agency’s independence and public confidence in anti-corruption efforts.
The Country Director of Accountability Lab Nigeria, Friday Odeh, and the Chancellor of the International Society for Social Justice and Human Rights (ISSJHR), Jackson Omenazu, separately argued on Thursday that any concerns arising from the EFCC’s actions should be resolved through the courts rather than executive intervention.
Odeh, who spoke to Daily Trust, said Tinubu’s directive left Nigerians with ‘two readings,’ both of which, according to him, cast the EFCC in a negative light.
‘Nigerians are left with two readings, and both are bad. One, the EFCC acted on its own and is now overridden by Aso Rock, which means it has no operational independence. The second assumption is that the EFCC did not act on its own, and the reversal is damage control,’ he said.
He argued that the President’s intervention had weakened whatever case the commission intended to pursue over the alleged mismanagement of ecological funds in Osun State.
Odeh also called for reforms governing the freezing of government accounts, saying any post-no-debit order on a state’s statutory allocation account should require a publicly disclosed court order, a defined duration and safeguards to protect workers’ salaries and pensions.
Similarly, Omenazu said the President lacked constitutional authority to interfere in an ongoing EFCC investigation or direct the agency on matters already before it.
‘The President does not have the constitutional authority to interfere in an ongoing EFCC investigation or direct the agency on matters that are before it. He should allow the law to take its course and respect the independence of institutions established by the Constitution and the laws of Nigeria,’ Omenazu said.
He maintained that the EFCC, being a statutory body, was expected to discharge its responsibilities independently and without executive interference.
‘The EFCC is a creation of statute and is expected to discharge its responsibilities independently, without executive interference. The President can only exercise powers that are expressly conferred on him by the Constitution and other extant laws. He cannot override the law or substitute his personal directive for due legal process,’ he said.
Omenazu added that any dispute arising from the commission’s actions should be resolved through the courts.
Free El-Rufai too, Atiku challenges Tinubu
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has challenged President Tinubu to direct the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, to release former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, arguing that if the president could order the EFCC to vacate its freeze on Osun State’s government account, he has no basis to claim powerlessness over El-Rufai’s continued detention.
Atiku, in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, said: ‘Having now demonstrated that he can issue direct operational directives to anti-corruption agencies whenever he considers it expedient, President Tinubu owes Nigerians an explanation as to why he cannot exercise the same authority in the case of Mallam Nasir El-Rufai,’ Atiku said.
ADC: President’s directive on Osun curious, unusual
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) said the President’s admission that he directed the EFCC to discontinue the action undermines claims of the agency’s independence or neutrality, thereby confirming that the President actually directs the operational conduct of the anti-graft agencies.
In a statement signed by Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the National Publicity Secretary of the ADC, the party claimed that the reversal was a response to sustained public outrage rather than a voluntary act of restraint, noting that the anti-graft agency would not have acted so recklessly in the first place if it did not presume the authorisation of the federal government.
It said: ‘What we find most curious about the statement is the President’s repeated reference to an alleged court order authorising the freezing of the Osun State Government’s accounts. This is a remarkable new twist. In all of its public statements on this matter, the EFCC never once claimed that it had obtained a court order.
‘The Commission consistently defended its actions on the basis of its statutory powers and what it described as ‘preventive mandate.’ At no point did it inform Nigerians that a court had authorised its actions.’