Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has accused President Bola Tinubu of weaponising the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to harass, intimidate, and weaken the opposition.
In a statement on his X page, Atiku reacted to the detention of former Sokoto State Governor Aminu Tambuwal by the anti-graft agency, alleging that Tambuwal’s ordeal stemmed solely from his membership of the opposition coalition.
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The former presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) claimed that, under Tinubu, the fight against corruption had been reduced to a political tool aimed at coercing opposition leaders into joining the ruling party.
Atiku, who recently defected from the PDP, said Nigerians were living witnesses to a disturbing trend in which the state and its operatives had assumed the role of a political bully, using corruption allegations as a weapon to advance partisan agendas.
“Certainly, that is not the objective for which I worked hard during our administration to create the EFCC. It is as though today, anyone who associates with the opposition is a target for phantom corruption allegations and, it is as though, as soon as they are coerced into the political agenda of President Bola Tinubu their ‘sins’ are forgiven.
“That, definitely, is not how to build institutions. That, certainly, is not how to fight the monster of corruption. Indeed, such tendencies provide the stimulant for corruption to thrive”, he said.
The Adamawa-born politician further alleged that, under Tinubu’s administration, the EFCC had been used to pressure opposition state governors into defecting to the ruling party, adding that the “tea party” was far from over.
He stressed that while a genuine fight against corruption deserved the full support of all Nigerians, its exploitation as a political weapon should be unequivocally condemned by civil society and Nigeria’s friends in the international community.
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“We have in recent times witnessed the use of anti-corruption agencies in coercing political leaders into the ruling party. Our assurance to Nigerians is that we would never succumb to this anti-democratic machinations of railroading our people into a one-party dictatorship”, Atiku added.
