The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has dismissed as diversionary, allegations made by the African Democratic Congress (ADC) that its investigations into opposition figures are politically motivated.

The EFCC Executive Chairman, Ola Olukoyede, in a statement on Tuesday, said the mandate of the anti-graft agency bears a non-partisan hue and that investigations into corruption cases involving both ruling party and opposition figures are proceeding without fear or favour.

Insisting that “Fraud is fraud. Corruption is corruption,” the EFCC boss stated that “there is no protected interest or partisan consideration” in the work of the agency. He added that the Commission presently has case files on different political figures, irrespective of party affiliation, in various courts across the country.

“If I am not condemned for investigating both former and serving strong ruling party governors and ministers, I should not be condemned for also investigating opposition figures,” Olukoyede maintained.

The ADC, through its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, had accused the EFCC of targeting members of the Opposition Coalition with “politically motivated” summons, claiming that the cases were not based on new evidence but were rehashed in response to current political affiliations.

The EFCC boss described the claims as “self-serving, diversionary, narrow, and idle,” maintaining that there is no time limit on criminal investigations and that all allegations of corruption deserve to be probed.

“Available records in our courts show that several political figures from all divisions are answering charges of alleged economic and financial crimes. Many serving state governors of various political colourations are also on the Commission’s investigative radar,” the statement read.

The Commission stressed that it would not be pressured into revealing details of ongoing discreet investigations and reiterated that “fraud is fraud, corruption is corruption,” with no sacred cows in its operations.

The EFCC urged political parties and groups to focus on their activities and allow it to carry out its statutory duties, warning against politicising its work.

“All well-meaning Nigerians should ignore political statements meant to heat up the polity and divert attention from the pillage of the national treasury,” the statement added.

Not to be dissuaded, the ADC, in a fresh revelation, alleged that the EFCC is orchestrating what it called a media trial of leading opposition figures, beyond Monday’s arrest and detention of Aminu Tambuwal.

Bolaji Abdullahi, in a statement on Tuesday, said the EFCC has expanded its onslaught on opposition coalition leaders, targeting ADC’s Interim National Chairman and former Senate President, David Mark; Emeka Ihedioha, former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives and seven-month governor of Imo State.

The ADC noted that the move by the EFCC had become all too curious, coming over half a decade or more since these principal party leaders left office. It accused the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu government of “weaponising anti-corruption to do its political battle.”

Abdullahi said the arrest of Tambuwal marked the beginning of the crackdown on opposition figures.

“The detention of one of our leaders, former Sokoto State Governor, Senator Aminu Tambuwal, has marked the start of the crackdown intended to intimidate key leaders of the opposition and discredit them through media trials.

“As shown in an EFCC correspondence currently circulating online, the Commission has now embarked on the investigation of another coalition chieftain, former Imo Governor, Emeka Ihedioha, with an ‘urgent’ request to officials to provide information related specifically to his brief seven months in office.

“Former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, served as Governor of Imo State for just seven months, from May 29, 2019, until the Supreme Court removed him on January 14, 2020, a full five years and seven months ago. We therefore wonder what makes investigating him suddenly ‘urgent’ now.

“Most notably, the EFCC has now surreptitiously started excavating all the files from the ADC Chairman, Senator David Mark’s tenure as President of the Nigerian Senate. Let us remind Nigerians that our Party Chairman, Senator Mark, served as Senate President for eight years, from June 6, 2007, to June 6, 2015, making him the longest-serving Senate President in our history. He left office 10 years and two months ago. Three Senate Presidents after, the EFCC suddenly remembered that he was a Senate President.”

According to the ADC, the motivation of the anti-graft agency is all too clear, viewed against the backdrop of its curious timing, selective targets, and urgency.

“While the ADC, as a party, stands for adherence to the rule of law and due process, like all Nigerians, we question the curious timing, selective targets, and political motivations that now seem to define the EFCC’s actions. A fight against corruption that begins and ends with the opposition is not justice, it is persecution. We have no doubts that this is witch-hunting; it is the APC government weaponising anti-corruption to do its political battle.

“Having failed to stop the coalition, the jittery ruling party’s next move is to discredit its leaders by getting the EFCC to accuse them of looting the entire treasuries. These are calculated media trials, which start and end with the accusation, the scandal, and the consequent lowering of public estimation. It matters little whether there is a basis for these accusations — the game is the circus show.”

Lending his voice to condemn the EFCC’s actions, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar linked the ongoing fight to what he described as part of the machinations of the ruling All Progressives Congress to foist a one-party dictatorship on the country. He declared that the opposition coalition will not succumb to anti-democratic forces.

In a statement he personally signed on Tuesday, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar alleged that Tambuwal was arrested and detained because he is a member of the opposition coalition.

“It is a continuation of the Tinubu-led administration’s agenda to harass, intimidate and decimate the opposition,” Atiku said, adding that the reality unfolding before us today is that the administration, as with other aspects, has “objectified the fight against corruption as a political tool to coerce opposition leaders into the ruling party.”

Atiku, a leading figure in the coalition, regretted that the State has gravitated into a bully of sorts, using anti-corruption agencies to force opposition party figures into the ruling party.

“We are living witnesses to a growing trend where the state and its operators have assumed the roles of a bully by making corruption and the fight against it a political agenda.

“Certainly, that is not the objective for which I worked hard during our administration to create the EFCC. It is as though today, anyone who associates with the opposition is a target for phantom corruption allegations and, as soon as they are coerced into the political agenda of President @officialABAT, their ‘sins’ are forgiven.

“This definitely is not how to build institutions. That, certainly, is not how to fight the monster of corruption. Indeed, such tendencies provide the stimulant for corruption to thrive.

“We have seen how the EFCC has been used to empty opposition state governors into the ruling party, and the tea party is not about to end anytime soon.

“While the genuine fight against corruption is a matter that requires the total support of all Nigerians, the objectification of it as a political agenda should be roundly condemned by all in civil society spaces and friends of Nigeria in the international community.

“We have in recent times witnessed the use of anti-corruption agencies in coercing political leaders into the ruling party. Our assurance to Nigerians is that we would never succumb to these anti-democratic machinations of railroading our people into a one-party dictatorship,” the statement concluded.