By Kamsi Anayo
President Bola Tinubu has directed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to vacate a court order freezing an account belonging to the Osun State Government.
In a statement he personally issued on Thursday, Tinubu said he feels “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”.
“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,” Tinubu said in the statement.
Tinubu said that the directive to vacate the court order became important 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 that since assuming office as president in May 2023, he has “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,” the president wrote.
Tinubu said while he is yet to get the full details about the matter, the “timing of the action of EFCC is inauspicious,” and as such, he is 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,” he said.
