Tinubu doesn’t control EFCC, Presidency replies opposition leaders

The Presidency has dismissed allegation of opposition politicians that President Bola Tinubu is undermining multiparty democracy and using the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to persecute opposition politicians.

The Presidency also charged them not to undermine national institutions, insisting that the EFCC remains independent.

On Sunday, Atiku Abubakar, Senator David Mark, Peter Obi and others had accused the Federal Government of using the EFCC to persecute opposition politicians.

But in a swift reaction, Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, urged politicians to stop undermining national institutions, saying the EFCC remains independent.

He said the opposition figures were just blowing “hot air, seeking scapegoats for their failure and move to confuse the polity in a desperate search for cheap political gains.”

“None of the people who joined the governing APC was pressured to do so. They all did so of their own free will. They are being motivated by the noticeable gains of President Bola Tinubu’s reform programme. “We may ask: when politicians were moving in droves to the now-dying Peoples Democratic Party between 2000 and 2015, was Nigeria’s democracy imperilled?” Onanuga asked.

The Presidency also said investigations by the EFCC have begun exposing those with some explanation to give regarding their stewardship in office and management of public funds entrusted to them.

“These politicians now accuse President Tinubu of weaponising the EFCC for political purposes. We must reiterate that the EFCC is an independent institution established by law and empowered to carry out its statutory responsibilities without interference or favour.”

“We find it curious that the same people who claimed they want to rescue Nigeria are now the ones waging a war of attrition against accountability and probity. Those who have cases to answer before EFCC should be bold and brave enough to defend themselves if they are clean.”

He said President Tinubu has significant state issues to address rather than engage in political targeting.

“No one is above the law. Everyone must be accountable for their actions, both in and out of the office. Political affiliation should not be a shield against EFCC statutory work, which recently led to Nigeria’s removal from the FATF grey list. “We have taken cognisance of the signatories to the statement.”

“It is instructive that some of them were previously investigated and prosecuted by the EFCC even before President Tinubu took office in 2023,” he said.

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