STRAIGHT TALK BY OBINNA F. NWACHUKWU
On Thursday, 6th August, 2026, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, ordered the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to unfreeze three accounts belonging to the Osun State Government following a major political and legal dispute. A day before, precisely on Wednesday, August 5, 2026, the Federal High Court in Abuja had issued an order on an ex-parte application brought by the EFCC to freeze three Osun state government bank accounts. The Anti-graft agency had claimed that it acted to prevent the diversion and laundering of the state’s ₦11 billion, saying it had noted suspicious movements of state funds going into corporate entities.
Although the action is seen by many as legal and in line with the law establishing the agency, however, critics say the timing was wrong, coming few days to August 15, Osun State governorship election. This prompted the state governor Ademola Adeleke and opposition critics to accuse the agency of a politically motivated attempt to cripple state finances and governance.
In a statement he personally signed, President Tinubu expressed regret over the EFCC action which he said was an embarrassment to him and his administration and ordered the commission to unfreeze the accounts
The statement reads in part, “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.
“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…“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. Indeed, that is why institutions are set up by law with clearly defined powers. 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.
“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… 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”, President Tinubu stated.
Earlier, Gov Adeleke’s administration had sued the EFCC and First Bank, calling the freeze unconstitutional and demanding ₦2 billion in damages.
Legal experts and groups, including the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), had since then been debating the limits of the anti-graft body’s powers, with some critics questioning executive overreach and others defending law enforcement agency’s mandate to probe financial crimes. One of them, Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has said the Commission acted legally by freezing the Osun State Government’s account. He said the EFCC had the legal authority to freeze the account of a state government, provided it obtained a court order within the stipulated period.
Falana spoke on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Friday, said the legality of the commission’s powers had been settled by the courts, citing a 2022 Court of Appeal judgment in a case involving the Benue State Government and the EFCC.
Indeed, the recent EFCC action could be regarded as a playbook that started during the regime of the late President Muhammadu Buhari.
Many people may have forgotten that Buhari, as President, ensured that Samuel Ortom, then Governor of Benue State, suffered the same fate.
In August 2018, barely 48 hours after Samuel Ortom defected from the APC over the persistent killings in Benue State and the Buhari government’s refusal to come to the state’s aid, the EFCC placed a restriction on the bank accounts of the Benue State Government. What was the reason?
According to the EFCC, it was investigating the alleged misappropriation and diversion of N21.3 billion earmarked as “security votes” by state officials.
The EFCC carried out this action without first obtaining an interim freezing order from a court of law.
The restriction immediately halted the state’s financial transactions, leaving Benue State temporarily unable to pay civil servants’ salaries or fund essential government operations. The Benue State Government challenged the action in court.
The state argued that under Nigeria’s federal system, the EFCC does not have a blanket constitutional power to manage or disrupt the operational finances of a sovereign sub-national government.
It further argued that freezing a state’s primary treasury accounts through an administrative letter, without first obtaining a judicial warrant or court order, violated due process and amounted to illegal executive overreach.
The EFCC, on the other hand, argued that under the anti-money laundering framework and Section 38 of the EFCC Act, it had the power to temporarily freeze accounts under active investigation to prevent the diversion or laundering of public funds before a formal court application could be filed.
Justice Mobolaji Olajuwon of the Federal High Court heard the matter and ruled that the EFCC’s administrative powers to freeze the accounts were illegal, null, and void.
The court went further to grant a perpetual injunction restraining the EFCC from freezing Benue State’s bank accounts in the future.
It also ordered the EFCC to pay N50 million in damages to the Benue State Government for the unlawful disruption. Ordinarily, one would have thought that the matter ended there. But it didn’t.
The EFCC appealed the decision of the Federal High Court and, surprisingly, the Court of Appeal set aside the judgment.
According to Justice M.S. Hassan, who led the Court of Appeal panel, said the EFCC’s power to issue administrative freezing directives on state government accounts was valid. Why?
The court reasoned that since the restriction lasted for only 72 hours, it was lawful because it amounted to a temporary administrative action. The court further held that if the freezing had been indefinite, it would have been illegal because it would have required a prior court order. In the end, the Court of Appeal also set aside the N50 million damages earlier awarded against the EFCC.
So, whatever you are seeing today, the EFCC is acting on the judicial backing it received from the Court of Appeal in 2019.
Now that president Tinubu has intervened by ordering the EFCC to unfreeze the Osun state government accounts, what is the fate of the commission in the discharge of its responsibilities? Furthermore, can anyone, including the government, say the commission is truly independent? We watch what the future holds.
FOR ILLUSTRATION
USE Osun state governor and EFCC Chairman photos