Tambuwal released on bail as EFCC counters ADC, PDP

• We run non-partisan mandate — Commission

• APC using state institutions to repress opposition, PDP alleges

• EFCC planning to investigate David Mark, others to discredit opposition, ADC claims

Former governor of Sokoto State, Senator Waziri Aminu Tambuwal, was on Tuesday evening released on bail, as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) countered the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over his arrest on alleged financial matters.

A source close to the commission said the lawmaker was granted administrative bail pending his arraignment in court.

“The former governor had been released on administrative bail by the commission. He was released to enable the commission perfect its case, pending the time he would be arraigned in court,” said the source.

Both ADC and the PDP had accused EFCC of targeting political figures in the opposition’s camp. The development was sequel to the arrest of Tambuwal and reports that some opposition leaders are being investigated by the commission.

The ADC, which was the first to raise the alarm, alleged in a statement that the recent invitation, investigation and detention of the former speaker of the House of Representatives by the EFCC was part of a coordinated agenda to discredit the opposition party and its top chieftains ahead of the next general election.

National Publicity Secretary of the ADC, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, who made the claim in a statement on Tuesday, said that the commission had also pencilled down the Interim National Chairman of the ADC, Senator David Mark, for investigation.

Investigation by the Nigerian Tribune confirmed on Tuesday that apart from the former Sokoto State governor, former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Honourable Emeka Ihedioha, who had a seven-month stint as Imo State governor before he was sacked by a pronouncement of the Supreme Court, has also been invited for questioning on alleged financial sleaze during his short tenure as governor of the South-East state.

According to the ADC National Publicity Secretary, former Senate President and Interim National Chairman of the party, Senator David Mark, has also been pencilled for interrogation by the anti-corruption agency.

The ADC maintained that “it has become crystal clear that the EFCC is out on a hatchet job, a choreographed media trial targeted at bringing coalition leaders to disrepute.”

The statement read: “Following our earlier release on Monday, in which we alerted Nigerians about the plan to deploy the EFCC as a political weapon by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), we wish to bring to the public’s attention fresh details that expose the extent of this coordinated assault on the opposition.

The detention of one of our leaders, former Sokoto State governor, Senator Aminu Tambuwal, has marked the start of the crackdown intended to intimidate key leaders of the opposition and discredit them through media trials.

“As shown in an EFCC correspondence currently circulating online, the Commission has now embarked on the investigation of another coalition chieftain, former Imo Governor, Emeka Ihedioha, with an ‘urgent’ request to the officials to provide information related specifically to his brief seven months in office.

“Honourable Ihedioha, the former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, served as Governor of Imo State for just seven months, from May 29, 2019, until the Supreme Court removed him on January 14, 2020 — a full five years and seven months ago. We therefore wonder what makes investigating him suddenly ‘urgent’ now.

“Most notably, the EFCC has now surreptitiously started excavating all the files from the ADC Chairman, Senator David Mark’s tenure as President of the Nigerian Senate. Let us remind Nigerians that our Party Chairman, Senator Mark, served as the Senate President for 8 years, from June 6, 2007, to June 6, 2015 — making him the longest-serving Senate President in our history. He left office 10 years and 2 months ago. Three Senate Presidents after, the EFCC suddenly remembered that he was a Senate President.

“While the ADC, as a party, stands for adherence to the rule of law and due process, like all Nigerians, we question the curious timing, selective targets, and political motivations that now seem to define the EFCC’s actions.

A fight against corruption that begins and ends with the opposition is not justice — it is persecution. We have no doubts that this is witch-hunting; it is the APC government weaponising anti-corruption to do its political battle.

“Having failed to stop the coalition, the jittery ruling party’s next move is to discredit its leaders by getting the EFCC to accuse them of looting the entire treasuries. These are calculated media trials, which start and end with the accusation, the scandal, and the consequent lowering of public estimation. It matters little whether there is a basis for these accusations — the game is the circus show.

“The questions write themselves: why now? Why these men? Why these timelines? If corruption truly has no statute of limitation, why are the EFCC’s files on APC’s own ‘big men,’ many with fresher, documented cases, gathering dust in forgotten drawers? Why does the EFCC only discover ‘urgent’ anti-corruption zeal when an opposition leader becomes a political threat?

“The truth is simple. These are not fresh investigations — they are political manoeuvres, cynical attempts to intimidate and weaken credible opposition voices ahead of the 2027 elections. The APC’s EFCC does not touch its own while they are in office or when they defect to the ruling party. Once a former governor crosses over, their files vanish like morning dew. Since Ifeanyi Okowa joined the APC, have Nigerians heard a single whisper from the EFCC about his cases? Yet opposition leaders are hounded with allegations from decades past without a shred of new evidence.

“Let this be on record: what the EFCC is doing on behalf of the APC government is anti-democracy. Every time the EFCC is deployed as a political bulldog, it tramples on public trust and shreds the credibility of our justice system. We remind the APC that state institutions do not belong to the ruling party — they belong to Nigerians.

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“We call on citizens to speak up, to resist, and to demand that the EFCC stop this witch-hunting in the interest of our democracy. Today, it is David Mark, Ihedioha, and Tambuwal. Tomorrow, it could be anyone who dares to hold this government accountable.”

APC using state institutions to repress opposition — PDP

In another attack on the EFCC, the Sokoto State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), also on Tuesday condemned the arrest of the immediate past governor of the state, Senator Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, describing it as part of a wider campaign of political intimidation by the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Federal Government.

In a statement signed and made available to our correspondent in the early hours of Tuesday by its Publicity Secretary, Hassan Sahabi Sanyinnawal, the party alleged that the arrest, which took place on Monday, reflected “the escalating deployment of state institutions as tools of repression against political opposition” under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration.

The PDP said the action was a continuation of the “assault on political dissent” amid what it described as a growing coalition of progressive forces opposing what it called the “misrule” of the incumbent government.

According to the statement, the so-called investigation by the EFCC is a politically motivated “fishing expedition” aimed at tarnishing Tambuwal’s image and silencing his criticism.

“The motive of the trumped-up probe is obvious to the people of Sokoto State, who testify to the fiscal discipline and financial prudence of Tambuwal’s eight years in office,” the party said, adding that the matter being probed was “an old phantom” that had repeatedly failed to yield evidence in the past.

The PDP further accused the EFCC of selective investigations, claiming that genuine corruption cases involving certain APC leaders remain ignored “for obvious partisan reasons.”

The party reiterated its call for anti-graft agencies to act impartially and prioritise their constitutional responsibilities over “the whims of repressive elements in the corridors of power.”

Expressing confidence in Tambuwal’s “unblemished credibility,” the PDP urged its supporters and the people of Sokoto State to remain law-abiding but steadfast in demanding genuine democracy and good governance.

“We will not be daunted by the repressive schemes of reactionary forces, no matter how highly placed,” the statement read.

We run a non-partisan mandate — EFCC

The EFCC, however, rose in defence of its actions on Tuesday, declaring that its actions were not politically motivated. The commission, in a Facebook post, accused the ADC of leading “unprovoked attacks” on the anti-graft agency.

“The African Democratic Congress, ADC’s unprovoked attack on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, concerning its handling of cases involving politically exposed persons from every divide, came as a rude shock and unwarranted blame game,” the EFCC said.

It added: “Every objective and discerning watcher of events in the national political scene would admit that the Commission has been circumspect and dispassionate in the exercise of its mandate.

“The ADC’s claims that ‘Opposition Coalition have received EFCC summons that are clearly politically motivated. These are not fresh cases arising from new evidence but new files opened in reaction to emergent political affiliations to intimidate key opposition figures,’ are clearly self-serving, diversionary, narrow and idle. The question is, what determines ‘fresh cases’ and old cases? Every corruption allegation deserves to be investigated and there is no constraint of time and season in criminal investigations.

“Available records in our courts show that several political figures of all divides are answering charges of alleged economic and financial crimes and other acts of corruption. It is also public knowledge that the EFCC is busy investigating some key figures of the ruling party owing to allegations of corrupt practices.

“Besides, many serving state governors of various political colourations are on the investigative radar of the Commission. The Commission will not be blackmailed into making full disclosures of its discreet investigations of any state or non-state actor, no matter the provocation.”

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The ADC was right to have admitted that “The EFCC does not belong to the APC. It belongs to the Nigerian people. It is funded by taxpayers, not the ruling party.” Nothing can be farther from this truth.

The ADC and other political groups should focus on their partisan activities and allow the Commission to carry out its mandate. Nothing will make an innocent person answer any charge from the EFCC. The “opposition figures” the ADC is trying unsuccessfully to whitewash know in their hearts that they have issues that necessitated their invitations by the Commission. The immunity against any investigation by the EFCC is accountability and probity.

Fraud is fraud. Corruption is corruption. There is no sacred cow, protected interest or partisan consideration in the investigation and prosecution of corruption.

The EFCC will continue to do its job and all well-meaning Nigerians are enjoined to ignore political statements meant to heat up the polity and divert attention from the pillage of the national treasury.