Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, has directed the state’s Attorney-General to withdraw the lawsuit filed against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over the freezing of the state government’s bank account.
Adeleke disclosed this in an interview with Channels Television, shortly after he was declared winner of the August 15 governorship election.
The governor said he decided to withdraw the case following President Bola Tinubu’s intervention, including a call from the President.
“I have instructed my attorney general to drop it. Mr President has done well. He called me. What more do I want?” Adeleke said.
The governor also spoke about EFCC invitations reportedly extended to some of his aides and government officials, saying he had directed his lawyers to assist them.
“Well, we have been talking. I have been calling all my lawyers to go there,” he said.
Adeleke alleged that some of the EFCC actions were politically motivated but noted that officials who honoured the invitations had been released after questioning.
He also said he did not believe President Tinubu was personally aware of some of the actions attributed to federal agencies.
“Most of these things, the president doesn’t know. The president has a lot of foreign work and jobs to do,” he said.
The governor further alleged that former Osun State Governor and Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Gboyega Oyetola, was behind the EFCC action because of his relationship with Tinubu.
“All these things is Oyetola because he is the cousin to the president. He is dropping the president’s name,” Adeleke alleged.
He added that he believed Tinubu intervened after becoming aware of the situation.
What Happened
The Osun State Government had earlier filed a suit against the EFCC over the freezing of its statutory allocation account.
The suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1762/2026, was filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja on August 5. The state sought to nullify the EFCC’s directive and demanded N2 billion in exemplary damages.
The EFCC said the account was frozen as part of an investigation into alleged fraudulent handling of funds by the state government.
President Tinubu later directed the EFCC to lift the freeze order, saying he was embarrassed that actions by federal agencies were sometimes attributed to his administration even when he had no prior knowledge of them.
