The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has released former Sokoto State Governor Aminu Tambuwal, a day after detaining him over alleged fraudulent cash withdrawals totalling N189 billion.
A source confirmed to PREMIUM TIMES that the senator, who currently represents Sokoto South in the Nigerian Senate, was released from custody on Tuesday.
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“He has been discharged today (Tuesday), so he has left,” the source said.
Mr Tambuwal, a former Speaker of the House of Representatives and two-term Sokoto State governor, was detained and interrogated by detectives when he visited the EFCC headquarters in Abuja at about 11 a.m. on Monday.
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Investigators accuse him of violating the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, through massive cash withdrawals allegedly made during his tenure as governor.
The EFCC has yet to comment publicly on the case.
Earlier, PREMIUM TIMES reported that the former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, condemned the detention, calling it an attempt by President Bola Tinubu’s administration to intimidate the opposition ahead of the 2027 elections.
In a post on X, Mr Atiku alleged that the anti-graft agency is being used to coerce political leaders into defecting to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
“The only reason the @officialEFCC has detained the former Governor of Sokoto State, Senator Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, @AWTambuwal, is because he is a member of the opposition coalition,” Atiku wrote.
“It is a continuation of the Tinubu-led administration’s agenda to harass, intimidate, and decimate the opposition.”
Atiku accused President Bola Tinubu’s administration of “weaponising” anti-corruption agencies to coerce political opponents into defecting to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
He alleged that once opposition figures join the APC, corruption allegations against them are dropped.
“That, certainly, is not how to fight the monster of corruption,” he said, warning that such practices undermine institutions and embolden corrupt practices.
The former vice president also claimed the EFCC has in recent years played a role in pressuring opposition governors to switch allegiance to the APC.
“We have seen how the EFCC has been used to empty opposition state governors into the ruling party,” he said, urging Nigerians, civil society, and the international community to reject the “objectification” of the anti-corruption fight as a political weapon.
Mr Atiku assured that the opposition coalition would resist any “anti-democratic machinations” aimed at turning Nigeria into a one-party state.
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Political background
Mr Tambuwal served as Sokoto governor from 2015 to 2023, switching from the APC to the PDP before the 2019 elections.
He was elected to the Senate in 2023 and is a key figure in the opposition coalition seeking to challenge President Tinubu in 2027.
Allegations
Although the EFCC has yet to speak publicly on the alleged N189 billion fraud over which Mr Tambuwal was detained and interrogated, the allegations have been a subject of the commission’s years-long enquiry.
In April 2022, Sahara Reporters reported a leaked intelligence report of the EFCC raised in September 2021, detailing how the Mr Tambuwal-led Sokoto State Government allegedly diverted about N189 billion into private individuals.
The document sent to then EFCC chair, Abdulrasheed Bawa, said “unusual transactions” were discovered in the accounts from 1 January 2015 to 31 August 2021.
According to the document, three accounts — those of the Accountant General of Sokoto State, Secretary to the State Government, and Permanent Secretary Government House — received total inflows of more than N567 billion out of a total of over N189 billion allegedly diverted within the period,
“The Department recently carried out financial profiling of the Sokoto State Government,” the report noted, explaining that the exercise sought to identify accounts “exposed to diversion, misappropriation of public funds, and money laundering by government officials.”
