Free El-Rufai Too, Atiku Tells Tinubu After EFCC Withdraws Osun Account Freeze

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has challenged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to direct the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to release former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai, following the President’s directive to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to vacate the order freezing the Osun State Government’s accounts.

In a statement released on Thursday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate argued that Tinubu’s intervention had weakened the claim that Nigeria’s anti-corruption agencies act independently of the Presidency.

“Having now demonstrated that he can issue direct operational directives to anti-corruption agencies whenever he considers it expedient, President Tinubu owes Nigerians an explanation as to why he cannot exercise the same authority in the case of Mallam Nasir El-Rufai.

“If he can direct the EFCC to discontinue its action today, then he cannot pretend to be powerless over the actions of the ICPC tomorrow,” Atiku said.

He also criticised what he described as inconsistencies in the government’s explanation of the EFCC’s action against the Osun State Government.

“If indeed there was a court order, why did the EFCC omit such a fundamental fact from its official account? If there was none, then the President has introduced into the public discourse a legal process that exists nowhere in the EFCC’s own narrative. Nigerians deserve a coherent explanation instead of conflicting versions from the same government,” he said.

Atiku further argued that the President cannot maintain that anti-corruption agencies are autonomous while simultaneously directing their operations.

“Institutions cannot be independent only when it is politically convenient and subject to presidential directives whenever controversy arises. That is not institutional autonomy; it is executive control disguised as independence.”

The former vice president said the implications of the Osun account freeze extend beyond a single state or the detention of a former governor, stressing that the matter affects public confidence in Nigeria’s anti-graft institutions.

He maintained that reversing the freeze shortly before the Osun governorship election does not answer the wider questions raised by the incident.

“Democracy is not measured by the ability to reverse an injustice after public outrage; it is measured by the discipline to prevent such injustice from occurring in the first place,” he stated.

Africans Angle News