THE Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has declared that it had been non-partisan in its approach to tackling graft.
The agency stated this on Tuesday, August 12, while reacting to allegations of bias levelled against it by the African Democratic Congress (ADC), former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, and other opposition parties,
Recall that Abubakar had alleged that the EFCC was a political tool in the hands of President Bola Tinubu’s government for intimidating and decimating opposition parties.
Abubakar said this while reacting to the detention of former Sokoto State Governor and current senator, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, by the EFCC.
The ICIR reported that the EFCC arrested Tambuwal over alleged fraudulent cash withdrawals totaling N189 billion.
The withdrawals were said to violate the Money Laundering (Prevention & Prohibition) Act, 2022.
Tambuwal reportedly arrived at the EFCC headquarters in Abuja around 11:30 a.m. on Monday, August 11, to be interrogated by investigators.
A member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Tambuwal served as governor from 2015 to 2023 and was previously the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
He is also seen as a key member of the coalition ADC led by Atiku and others.
Abubakar, while reacting to Tambuwal’s arrest on his X handle, claimed the move was part of a bigger agenda to “harass, intimidate, and decimate” members of the opposition coalition.
“The only reason the EFCC has detained the former Governor of Sokoto State, Senator Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, is because he is a member of the opposition coalition,” Abubakar said.
“It is a continuation of the Tinubu-led administration’s agenda to intimidate the opposition,” he added.
He further claimed that the EFCC had become a political tool to coerce opposition members into the ruling party, stressing that those who resisted were targeted with corruption allegations.
“Today, anyone who associates with the opposition is a target for phantom corruption allegations. As soon as they are coerced into the political agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, their ‘sins’ are forgiven,” he further claimed.
Earlier, on Monday, the ADC, in a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, alleged that the EFCC was carrying out selective investigations targeting opposition politicians.
The party declared that recent EFCC summons to senior members of the opposition coalition were politically motivated and connected to their political affiliations.
According to ADC, some of the cases being pursued were not based on new findings but involved reopening files from past years.
Reacting in a statement signed by its spokesperson Dele Oyewale, on Tuesday, the EFCC said the ADC’s “unprovoked attack” on the commission, concerning its handling of cases involving politically exposed persons came as a rude shock and unwarranted blame game.
The anti-corruption agency said every objective and discerning watcher of events in the national political scene would admit that the commission had been circumspect and dispassionate in the exercise of its mandate.
According to the EFCC, the ADC’s claim that its members received EFCC summons and that such summons were politically motivated was self-serving, diversionary, narrow, and idle.
The EFCC said the question should be, what determines “fresh cases and old cases?”
“Every corruption allegation deserves to be investigated, and there is no constraint of time and season in criminal investigations.
“Available records in our courts showed that several political figures of all divides are answering charges of alleged economic and financial crimes and other acts of corruption. It is also public knowledge that the EFCC is busy investigating some key figures of the ruling party owing to allegations of corrupt practices.
“Besides, many serving state governors of various political colouration are on the investigative radar of the Commission,” the EFCC stated.
The Commission said it would not be blackmailed into making full disclosures of its discreet investigations of any state or non-state actor, no matter the provocation, adding that it agreed with the ADC that the EFCC belonged to the Nigerian people, funded by taxpayers, and not the ruling party.
The EFCC said the ADC and other political groups should focus on their partisan activities and allow the commission to do its job.
A reporter with the ICIR
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