By Omeiza Ajayi
ABUJA: Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has challenged President Bola Tinubu to direct the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission ICPC to release former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, arguing that if the president could order the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC to vacate its freeze on Osun State’s government account, he has no basis to claim powerlessness over El-Rufai’s continued detention.
The African Democratic Congress ADC presidential candidate said on Thursday in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, that Tinubu’s intervention in the Osun matter had demolished the long-held claim that 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 declared.
He faulted what he described as conflicting accounts from the government over the Osun freeze.
“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.
He argued that the President could not simultaneously deny interference in EFCC operations while directing the commission’s next move. “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.”
According to Atiku, the implications extend beyond the fate of one state or one detained politician, going to the heart of public trust in Nigeria’s anti-graft architecture.
He added that reversing the Osun freeze, coming just days before the state’s governorship election, does not resolve the deeper questions the episode has raised.
“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.
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