The Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu has ordered the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to lift the freeze order restricting an account of the Osun State Government, describing the timing of the freezing of the account as deeply embarrassing to him.
Penpushing reports that Tinubu gave the directive in a statement on Thursday, lamenting that every action taken by an institution of state, especially at the Federal level, is always credited to him, as the President, even when he may not have had any prior knowledge of the action.
“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.
Penpushing further reports that the statement personally signed by Tinubu came amid growing criticisms of the anti-corruption agency’s action, which has increasingly drawn condemnation as a politically motivated step.
The president said while he intentionally refrained from directing or interfering in the operational activities of the anti-graft agency or any other investigative or prosecutorial agency, he felt compelled to intervene in the Osun State matter.
“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 stated.
“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’, Tinubu said.
Penpushing also reports that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had claimed it froze the account over the alleged fraudulent handling of N11 billion ecology, social intervention and federal allocations by the state.
The Director of Public Affairs of the agency, Wilson Uwujaren explained that the commission intervened with the freezing order to stop moving funds from the account into other suspicious accounts.
Penpushing reports that Uwujaren, emphasized that the anti-graft agency acted after detecting what it described as suspicious movements of funds from the account, adding that the restriction was intended to preserve public funds while investigations continue.
“We observed in the past one week that activities on that account looked suspicious, and based on the mandate of the Commission, we took the step of placing a restriction on that account to preserve it’ Uwujaren said.
Penpushing further reports that he stated that the commission did not freeze all the accounts belonging to the Osun State Government but only imposed a restriction on one account under investigation.
Meanwhile, defence of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) comes amid growing criticisms of the enforcement action, which came less than two weeks before the governorship election.
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