Emmanuel Onuh
Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), has challenged President Bola Tinubu to direct the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to release Nasir el-Rufai.
El-Rufai has been in the custody of the ICPC since February 19 over alleged financial impropriety during his tenure as governor of Kaduna between 2015 and2023.
On April 13, the ICPC arraigned the former governor at the Kaduna High Court on an amended nine-count charge bordering on alleged fraud and abuse of office.
Atiku said Tinubu’s recent directive to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to lift the freeze on the Osun state government’s bank accounts has undermined repeated claims that the country’s anti-graft agencies operate independently.
Tinubu had on Thursday directed the EFCC to return to court and vacate the order freezing the Osun government’s accounts, saying although the agency acted within its statutory powers, the timing of the action — days before the August 15 governorship election — was inappropriate.
Reacting in a statement issued by Phrank Shaibu, his senior special assistant on public communication, Atiku said the president’s intervention had exposed what he described as the “myth” of the EFCC’s operational independence.
The former vice-president questioned Tinubu’s claim that the EFCC had obtained a court order before placing a lid on the accounts.
According to him, the anti-graft agency never mentioned any court order while explaining the basis for its action.
“President Tinubu’s statement has raised more questions than it has answered,” Atiku said.
“While the EFCC’s official statement painstakingly explained why it froze the Osun State Government’s account, it made no mention whatsoever of obtaining a court order.
“Yet the President’s intervention is predicated entirely on the existence of such a court order, which he claims to have directed the EFCC to vacate.
“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.”
Atiku stated that Tinubu could not claim to be detached from the EFCC’s operations while simultaneously directing the commission to discontinue its action.
“He cannot claim that he neither knew of nor interfered in the operations of the EFCC and, in the very next breath, announce that he has directed the commission to discontinue its action and return to court,” he said.
