The Minority Caucus in the House of Representatives on Friday accused President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of issuing a “panicky, belated afterthought” presidential directive to the EFCC on the freezing of the Osun State Government’s bank accounts ahead of the governorship election in the state.
The caucus, in a statement jointly signed by its Leader, Hon. Fredrick Agbedi, and Spokesman, Hon. Afam Victor Ogene, and made available to journalists in Abuja, declared that the move exposed deep contradictions and a deliberate plot to intimidate the Osun State Government ahead of the governorship election.
It pointed out that the presidential directive to the anti-graft commission to vacate the court order freezing the bank accounts was forced by “massive public outcry” and not by respect for the rule of law.
The caucus added that the presidential directive exposed “a government at war with itself”, pointing to what it called a brazen contradiction within the Tinubu administration.
According to the caucus, “While EFCC spokesman, Mr Wilson Uwujaren, stated on national television on Thursday that the freezing of Osun’s accounts was done ‘without a valid court order’, the President’s statement later that Thursday afternoon directed the commission to go to court to ‘vacate the order’.
“So, which is it? Was there a court order or not?” the statement asked.
“Is the President not aware of what his own appointees are saying and doing? Has the President lost control of his army of sycophants who behave like lords over the people? Or are they simply trying to hide an illegality that has already been exposed?”
The caucus further accused the President’s senior aides of being the first to circulate and defend the EFCC’s initial press release supporting the commission’s actions.
According to it, “It is, therefore, insulting for the President to pretend ignorance… Nigerians are not fools.”
The caucus emphasised that the current development followed a “pattern of high-handedness” against Osun State and its people.
The lawmakers described the August 5 EFCC action as the latest in what they termed a sustained campaign of intimidation against Osun State by the APC-led Federal Government.
It listed four separate but interrelated incidents:
- Seizure of local government allocations: “For months, the Federal Government has illegally withheld and seized statutory allocations due to Osun local governments. This is economic strangulation aimed at crippling governance at the grassroots ahead of elections.”
- Alleged “unending violence perpetrated by APC members and imported thugs in Osun”, with “curious and deliberate inaction” by the police.
- The “Gestapo-style arrest and detention of the Secretary to the Osun State Government, Teslim Igbalaiye, and others over flimsy accusations”, which they called “a direct attack on the institution of the state government”.
- The “disrespectful conduct” of the Osun Commissioner of Police and the manner in which an IGP visit ended with “baseless, politically motivated allegations that the state government is harbouring hoodlums in the Government House”. “This is not policing. It is partisan propaganda in uniform.”
The caucus further explained that the President’s appointees have been making “shocking, unpresidential and inciting statements” capable of “eroding whatever goodwill the President has left and creating a very negative public perception of his government”.
According to it, “The mask is off. Nigerians can now see clearly that the APC has weaponised federal institutions against opposition states — a dress rehearsal for what is to come in the 2027 general elections.
“Yes, Mr President hails from Osun, but the state cannot be a personal fiefdom; he must therefore allow the people to freely choose who governs them.
“The people of Osun should be given the enabling environment to freely exercise their constitutional right to vote without fear, coercion or voter apathy engineered by state terror.
“Violence, intimidation, economic sabotage and the misuse of federal agencies have no place in a democracy,” the lawmakers declared, warning that “Osun is not a conquered territory. You will not rig this election through the EFCC, through the police or through thuggery.”
The caucus called on civil society organisations and the international community to hold both the APC and the Federal Government responsible for any breakdown of law and order before, during and after the Osun governorship election.
According to it, “Osun people will vote. Osun people will be protected. And democracy will prevail.”