Atiku to Tinubu: Order El-Rufai’s release if you control anti-graft agencies

Former Vice President and presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, 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, if he indeed has the authority to issue operational directives to Nigeria’s anti-corruption agencies.

Mr Atiku said President Tinubu’s directive to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to vacate the reported court order freezing the Osun State Government’s accounts had exposed what he described as the myth of the operational independence of anti-graft agencies.

In a statement issued on Thursday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, the former vice president argued that the President’s intervention had created a constitutional and moral obligation that could not be selectively applied.

“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,” Atiku said.

“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. Executive power cannot be invoked selectively for political convenience while institutional independence is cited only when it suits the Presidency.”

Atiku maintained that Tinubu’s intervention in the Osun matter had undermined the Presidency’s longstanding claim that anti-corruption agencies operate independently.

According to him, the President could not simultaneously claim non-interference in the affairs of the EFCC while issuing operational directives to the agency.

“President Tinubu cannot have it both ways. He cannot claim that he neither knew of nor interferes 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. If the EFCC promptly complies with that directive, then Nigerians have before them undeniable proof that the Commission is not as operationally independent as the President wants the country to believe,” he said.

The former vice president also questioned what he described as inconsistencies between the President’s statement and the EFCC’s account of the freezing of Osun State’s accounts.

He noted that while the EFCC explained its reasons for freezing the accounts, it did not mention obtaining a court order, whereas the President’s directive was based on vacating such an order.

“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,” Atiku said.

He argued that the controversy extended beyond the Osun State accounts or El-Rufai’s detention, insisting that it called into question the credibility of Nigeria’s anti-corruption institutions.

“The real casualty is the credibility of Nigeria’s anti-corruption institutions and the rule of law itself. Nigerians deserve institutions that are genuinely independent—not institutions that are portrayed as independent until the Presidency decides otherwise,” he said.

Atiku added that although reversing the freezing of Osun State’s accounts could help restore confidence in the electoral process, it did not answer questions about why such action was initiated against an opposition-controlled state shortly before a governorship election.

“The unanswered questions remain: who authorised the freezing of the account of an opposition-controlled state just days before a governorship election, and why was such an extraordinary action taken at such a politically sensitive moment? Nigerians deserve answers,” he said.