- Atiku said EFCC’s politicisation creates conditions for corruption to thrive rather than eliminating it.
- He recalled establishing EFCC during his tenure to strengthen institutions, not use them as political weapons.
Former vice-president, Atiku Abubakar, has claimed that the detention of senator and former Sokoto governor, Aminu Tambuwal, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is purely political.
Posting on X on Monday, Atiku alleged that President Bola Tinubu’s government has turned the EFCC into a weapon against opposition figures to pressure them into joining the ruling party.
Tambuwal, who now represents Sokoto south in the senate, was invited by the EFCC earlier in the day for questioning.
Investigators accused the former governor of making cash withdrawals totalling ₦189 billion, allegedly contravening the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act of 2022.
According to Atiku, “The only reason the EFCC has detained the former governor of Sokoto State, Senator Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, is that he is a member of the opposition coalition.”
He described the action as “a continuation of the Tinubu-led administration’s agenda to harass, intimidate and decimate the opposition.”
The former vice-president argued that the current administration has “objectified the fight against corruption as a political tool to coerce opposition leaders into the ruling party.”
Atiku further said, “We are living witnesses to a growing trend where the state and its operators have assumed the role of a bully by making corruption and the fight against it a political agenda.
“Certainly, that is not the objective for which I worked hard during our administration when we created the EFCC.
“It is as though today anyone who associates with the opposition is a target for phantom corruption allegations and, as soon as they are coerced into President Bola Tinubu’s political agenda, their ‘sins’ are forgiven.”
He added that such practices undermine institutional integrity and, instead of eradicating graft, create conditions for it to flourish.
Atiku also claimed that several opposition governors in the past had been pressured to defect to the APC to avoid similar prosecutions.
“We have seen how the EFCC has been used to compel opposition state governors to join the ruling party, and the tea party is not about to end anytime soon,” he said.
He called on civil society and the international community to challenge the alleged politicisation of anti-graft bodies.
The former vice-president promised that moves to impose a one-party system through intimidation would be resisted.
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