• Calls Adeleke, expresses deep embarrassment over timing of action •Atiku, ADC fault claim of anti-graft agencies’ independence •Urge president to order ICPC to free El-Rufai • Accord Party alleges plot to influence Osun poll • Adeleke slams N2bn suit against EFCC Deji Elumoye, Chuks Okocha, Alex Enumah and Sunday Aborisade in Abuja President Bola Tinubu yesterday took the rare step of directing the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to immediately return to court to vacate the order freezing the Osun State Government’s bank account, describing the timing of the action as embarrassing. The Nigerian leader argued that the move by the anti-corruption agency was capable of creating the impression that federal institutions were being deployed to influence the August 15 governorship election in the state. The President also personally telephoned Osun State Governor, Senator Ademola Adeleke, to inform him of the directive, in what observers described as an unusual intervention in the operational activities of an anti-graft agency that the presidency has consistently maintained enjoys institutional independence. Besides, Adeleke’s party, Accord, has alleged that the freezing of the Osun State Government’s accounts formed part of a broader plot to influence the outcome of the August 15 governorship election. However, former Vice President and presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, said President Tinubu’s directive to the EFCC had irretrievably damaged the long-standing claim that the anti-graft agency operates independently of the Presidency. In the same vein, Adeleke has dragged the EFCC before the Federal High Court in Abuja, seeking N2 billion in exemplary and aggravated damages over what he described as the unlawful freezing of the Osun State Government’s Federal Statutory Allocation Account. But Tinubu, in a seven-paragraph statement, stressed that although he remained committed to allowing anti-corruption agencies discharge their statutory responsibilities without interference, he considered the timing of the EFCC’s action against an opposition-controlled state just days before a governorship election as inappropriate and capable of undermining public confidence in the electoral process. “It has come to my notice that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) obtained a court order on August 5, 2026, freezing the accounts of the Osun State Government. 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,” he said. The President reiterated that since assuming office, he had deliberately refrained from interfering in the activities of anti-corruption agencies because of his belief that democratic institutions must function independently within the limits of the law. “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,” Tinubu stated. He added that although he was yet to be fully briefed on the circumstances that informed the commission’s decision to obtain the order freezing the state’s account, the political timing of the action compelled his intervention. “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. “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,” he said. The President emphasised that no action should create the impression that agencies of the Federal Government were being used to influence an election. “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 o
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