Osun Crisis: Lawmakers Accuse Tinubu Government of Pretending Ignorance

The House of Representatives Minority Caucus has said that President Bola Tinubu’s directive to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on the Osun State account has exposed deep contradictions in the Federal Government.

The lawmakers were said to have expressed their reservations in a joint statement signed by the Minority Leader, Hon. Fredrick Agbedi and the Caucus Spokesman, Hon. Afam Victor Ogene.

They claimed Tinubu had issued a “panicky, belated afterthought” directive to the EFCC.

According to the lawmakers, the President’s directive to the EFCC to lift the court order that froze the accounts of Osun State was not a matter of respect for the rule of law, but was based on “massive public outcry.

The development, the Caucus said, shows “a government at war with itself,” adding that it points to what it called contradictory positions within the Tinubu administration on the validity of the EFCC’s actions.

The lawmakers pointed out that while the EFCC spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, allegedly said on national television on Thursday that the freezing of Osun State’s accounts was done “without a valid court order,” the President later instructed the anti-graft agency to go back to court to “vacate the order.”

The Caucus challenged the apparent contradiction, “So which is it? “Was there a court order or not?”

Is the President not aware of what his own appointees are saying and doing? Has the President abandoned himself to an army of sycophants who act as if they are lords over the people? Or are they just trying to cover up an illegality that’s already been exposed?

The opposition lawmakers further claimed that the senior presidential aides were the first to circulate and defend the initial statement from the EFCC justifying the freezing of the state accounts.

“Therefore, it is an insult for the President to play dumb. “Nigerians are not fools,” the statement added.

The Minority Caucus also argued that the latest development is part of a larger trend of the Federal Government, led by the APC, intimidating the Osun State Government.

It alleged that the Federal Government had withheld for months statutory allocations due to Osun local governments in what it termed “economic strangulation’’ aimed at weakening governance at the grassroots ahead of the election.

The lawmakers also accused members of the APC and “imported thugs” of perpetrating constant violence in the state, noting that security agencies did not take decisive action.

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They also alleged the arrest and detention of the Secretary to the Osun State Government, Teslim Igbalaiye and others, saying the move was a direct attack on the state’s institutions.

The Caucus equally condemned the conduct of the Osun State Commissioner of Police and described the statement made after the recent visit of the Inspector-General of Police as “partisan propaganda in uniform”.

The lawmakers said some appointees of President Tinubu had continued to make “shocking, unpresidential and inciting statements” capable of damaging public confidence in the administration.

The mask is removed. Nigerians can now see clearly that the APC has weaponized federal institutions against opposition states, a dress rehearsal of what is to come in the 2027 general elections.

“Yes, Mr. President is from Osun but the state cannot be a personal fiefdom. He must give the people the chance to choose their ruler freely.

“The people of Osun deserve to be given the enabling environment to exercise their constitutional right to vote without fear, coercion or voter apathy engineered by state terror.

“Violence, intimidation, economic sabotage and the abuse of federal agencies have no place in a democracy,” the statement said.