By Ghazali Ibrahim
Former Vice President and African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, 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, following the President’s directive to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to lift the freeze on Osun State Government accounts.
In a statement issued on Thursday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku argued that Tinubu’s intervention in the Osun matter had undermined claims that Nigeria’s anti-corruption agencies operate independently of the Presidency.
According to Atiku, if the President could instruct the EFCC to reverse its action against Osun State, he could not claim to lack the authority to influence the ICPC over El-Rufai’s continued detention.
“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,” the statement said.
Atiku also questioned what he described as conflicting explanations surrounding the freezing of Osun State’s accounts.
He asked why the EFCC did not mention a court order in its public statement if one existed, adding that Nigerians deserved a clear and consistent explanation from the government.
The former vice president further argued that anti-corruption institutions could not claim independence while taking directives from the Presidency whenever politically sensitive issues arose.
According to him, the controversy goes beyond the Osun case or El-Rufai’s detention and raises broader concerns about public confidence in Nigeria’s anti-corruption institutions.
He maintained that although reversing the account freeze shortly before the Osun governorship election was a welcome development, it did not address the fundamental questions about the independence of the country’s anti-graft agencies.
Atiku added that democracy should be judged not by correcting perceived injustices after public backlash but by preventing them from occurring in the first place.
