Fuller details about the recent account freeze launched against the Osun State Government by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) have emerged, bringing to light a wider extent of an action that has already dealt a severe blow to the agency’s reputation.
Sahara Reporters has freshly reported that the EFCC targeted not just one of the state government’s accounts as previously known, but three.
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These include one federal allocation account with First Bank, which was previously known to be the only state government account the EFCC had frozen. The other two, just revealed, are joint allocation accounts with Zenith Bank.
Sahara Reporters reported that the commission indeed obtained a court order to implement the account freeze as disclosed for the first time on Thursday by President Bola Tinubu.
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The freeze order has drawn widespread condemnation to the EFCC and its chairman, Ola Olukoyede, as a politically motivated step.
The action came just over a week before the 15 August governorship election in Osun State, where incumbent Governor Ademola Adeleke of the Accord Party is running against Bola Oyebamiji belonging to the president’s party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).
It fed into a broader perception that federal agencies, including the Nigerian police, have been bias and selective in its enforcement actions against the Accord Party and Governor Adeleke’s second term bid in the forthcoming election.
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Expressing deep embarrassment about the development on Thursday, Mr Tinubu ordered the EFCC in a statement he signed personally to immediately take steps to vacate the court order freezing the state government’s account.
Documents newly obtained by Sahara Reporters showed that the EFCC obtained a freeze order against three accounts of the state government from the Federal High Court in Abuja on 5 August (Wednesday) through an ex parte application instituted under suit number FHC/ABJ/CS/1750/2026.
The application being ex parte meant that the adverse party that would be affected by the order sought was not meant to participate in its hearing.
According to Sahara Reporters, EFCC’s lawyer, M. A. Babatunde, moved the motion ex parte, informing the court that the affected accounts were “currently being investigated in a case of Diversion of public funds and Money Laundering pending conclusion of investigation and prosecution.”
The ex parte application was supported by an affidavit sworn by EFC’s investigator Ikenna Chukwueze and an exhibit marked “EFCC 1.”
The three frozen accounts
After listening to the lawyer, Justice Mohammed Umar went on to issue the ex parte order authorising the EFCC chairman, Ola Olukoyede, “or any officer authorised by him,” to direct the managing directors of the affected banks to freeze accounts listed in the schedule to the application.
The schedule listed three accounts of the Osun State Government affected by the court order. They are:
- Osun State Government Federal Allocation Account, domiciled with First Bank Plc, Account No. 2017170947;
- Osun State Joint Allocation Account, domiciled with Zenith Bank Plc, Account No. 1013374191; and
- Osun State Joint Allocation Account, domiciled with Zenith Bank Plc, Account No. 1014374909.
Justice Umar ordered that the freeze on the accounts should be in place till the conclusion of EFCC’s investigations.
Until Sahara Reporters’ reporting, only the First Bank account was known to be affected by the freeze order.
It is not clear yet why the anti-corruption agency has concealed the full information from the public in its communications on the matter since Wednesday when the EFCC wrote to First Bank to impose a Post-No-Debit (PND) restriction on an account operated by the Osun State Government.
The letter dated 5 July (Wednesday) did not cite any court order and only referenced just one account of the state government.
A statement from the EFCC that same day gave the impression that only one account was targeted and confirmed the restriction on the account through a PND directive to the bank.
Also, EFCC’s Director of Public Affairs, Wilson Uwujaren, appeared on Arise Television earlier on Thursday to justify the freeze of the state government’s account without a court order. However, Mr Uwujaren disclosed during the interview that the commission would follow up with a court order within 72 hours of the PND restriction, citing the EFCC’s establishment law.
The first indication of a court’s involvement in the account freeze came on Thursday from President Tinubu’s statement directing the EFCC to immediately take steps to vacate the freeze order.
Mr Tinubu, echoing public outrage about the EFCC’s action coming about 10 days before the 15 August Osun State governorship election, said he was deeply embarrassed by the freeze order.
It is not clear yet if the EFCC has applied to the court to lift the freeze orders.
‘Embarrassment’ to the president
PREMIUM TIMES reported on Wednesday that the EFCC froze an account of the Osun State Government domiciled with First Bank, after which the anti-graft agency said the action followed suspicious movement of public funds from the account amid an ongoing investigation into alleged financial misconduct involving about 11N billion in Ecology Funds, Intervention Funds and Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) allocations.
On Thursday, Mr Tinubu directed the EFCC to lift the restriction on the account, describing the timing of the action, coming about 10 days before the governorship election, as inauspicious and capable of creating the impression that a federal agency was being used to interfere with the poll.
The president said he found the EFCC’s action deeply embarrassing.
“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,” Mr Tinubu wrote.
“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 while he intentionally refrained from directing or interfering in the operational activities of the EFCC 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.
“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,” Mr Tinubu stated.
“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.”
The directive marks a dramatic intervention by the president in a controversy that has dominated political discourse in Osun State over the past 24 hours, after the anti-graft agency froze one of the state’s accounts over an ongoing investigation into the alleged diversion of about N11 billion in public funds.
Presidential spokesman, Mr Onanuga subsequently announced on Thursday that Mr Tinubu spoke with Mr Adeleke in a phone conversation, informing the governor that he had directed to lift the order restricting the account of the Osun State Government.
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