FORMER Vice President Atiku Abubakar has alleged that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has become 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 anti-graft agency.
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.
The EFCC spokesperson, Dele Oyewale, when contacted, refused to confirm his arrest.
However, a top official of the anti-graft agency who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak told The ICIR that the former governor was in the commission’s custody for alleged N189 billion fraud.
Tambuwal, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), served as governor from 2015 to 2023 and was previously the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Recall that Tambuwal stepped down for Abubakar during PDP presidential primary in 2022, paving the way for the Adamawa-born politician to clinch the party’s ticket and defeating heavyweights, including the current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike.
On Monday, a major opposition party, the African Democratic Congress (ADC), in a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, alleged that 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.
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 said.
He argued that such practices were eroding institutional integrity and creating fertile ground for corruption to flourish.
He called on civil society, Nigerians, and the international community to reject what he described as attempts to undermine democracy and promote a one-party state.
“We will never succumb to these tactics. The use of anti-corruption agencies as a political agenda must be roundly condemned.
“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,” he stated.
A reporter with the ICIR
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