CITIZENS COMPASS— Barely 24 hours after the bank accounts of Osun State were frozen by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), President Bola Tinubu on Thursday, issued an order to unfreeze them.
President Tinubu said the order was with immediate effect just as he ordered EFCC to vacate the court order freezing the bank accounts.
The directive was contained in a statement personally issued by the President following reports that the anti-graft agency obtained a court order on August 5, 2026, freezing the state’s accounts as part of an ongoing investigation.
According to Tinubu: It has come to my notice that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) obtained a court order on August 5, 2026, freezing the accounts of the Osun State Government. I must state that I feel deeply embarrassed not by the EFCC’s exercise of its mandate backed by a court order, but by the timing of the agency’s action.
Since assuming office, I have consistently maintained that anti-corruption and law enforcement agencies must be allowed to discharge their statutory responsibilities independently, professionally, without fear or favour, or political interference.
While I am yet to be fully apprised of the facts which informed the action of EFCC in approaching the court to obtain the said order freezing the Osun State Government account, I am not in the slightest doubt that the timing of the action of EFCC is inauspicious, and therefore I feel compelled to intervene.
The President observed that with the Osun governorship election only days away, no action should create the perception that federal institutions were being used to influence the electoral process.
“Osun State is only a few days away from its gubernatorial election. Therefore, nothing ought to be done to give an impression that the EFCC or indeed any other agency of the federal government is being used to interfere with the election.
Accordingly, I have directed the EFCC to immediately proceed to the court to vacate the order and discontinue whatever action it has instituted against the Osun State Government in this regard.
