President Bola Tinubu on Thursday ordered the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to ask a court to lift an order that froze the bank accounts of the Osun State government, saying the timing of the anti-graft action risked creating the impression of federal interference in an approaching state election.
In a statement which he personally signed, President Tinubu said he was “deeply embarrassed” not by the EFCC’s exercise of its statutory mandate but by when the agency secured the injunction—on August 5, 2026.
He said the actions by the EFCC and any other federal agency are often attributed to him, regardless of his prior knowledge.
“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,” Tinubu noted.
The directive comes days before a scheduled gubernatorial election in Osun State.
“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,” the President said.
He reiterated his stated policy of non‑interference in operational investigations.
“While I am yet to be fully apprised of the facts which informed the action of EFCC … I am not in the slightest doubt that the timing of the action … is inauspicious, and therefore I feel compelled to intervene.”
While citing an overriding public interest in preserving confidence in the integrity and fairness of Nigeria’s democratic process, President Tinubu 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 said.
NewsQuest reports that President Tinubu’s directive signals a pragmatic approach: preserve the principle of independent enforcement while intervening to prevent perceptions of partisan use of state power.
The Osun gubernatorial election is scheduled within days of the EFCC’s court order.
