The House of Representatives Minority Caucus has accused President Bola Tinubu of issuing a “Panicky, belated afterthought” directive to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), saying the move exposes deep contradictions and a deliberate plot to intimidate the Osun State government ahead of next week’s gubernatorial election.

In a statement jointly signed by its leader, Hon. Fredrick Agbedi, and spokesman, Hon. Afam Ogene, in Abuja on Thursday, the caucus said the President’s directive for the EFCC to vacate the court order freezing Osun’s accounts was forced by “massive public outcry” and not by respect for the rule of law.

It said that the president’s directive exposed “A government at war with itself,” pointing to what it called a brazen contradiction within the Tinubu administration.

“While EFCC Spokesman, Mr Wilson Uwujaren, stated on national television on Thursday that the freezing of Osun’s account was done ‘without a valid court order,’ the President’s statement later the same Thursday afternoon directed the Commission to go to court to “vacate the order.”

“So, which is it? Was there a court order or not?,” the statement asked.

“Is the President not aware of what his own appointees are saying and doing? Has the President lost control to his army of sycophants who behave like lords over the people? Or are they simply trying to hide an illegality that has already been exposed?”

The minority caucus further accused the President’s senior aides of being the first to circulate and defend the EFCC’s initial press release supporting the EFCC overreach.

“It is, therefore, insulting for the President to pretend ignorance… Nigerians are not fools,” the Minority Caucus statement said.

The caucus emphasised that the current development follows a “Pattern of High-Handedness” against Osun State and its people.

The lawmakers described the August 5 EFCC action as the latest in what they termed a sustained campaign of intimidation against Osun by the APC-led Federal Government.

They listed four separate but inter-related incidents: Seizure of LG allocations: “For months, the federal government has illegally withheld and seized statutory allocations due to Osun local governments. This is economic strangulation aimed at crippling governance at the grassroots ahead of elections.”

Alleged “Unending violence perpetrated by APC members and imported thugs in Osun,” with “curious and deliberate inaction” by the police.

The “Gestapo-style arrest and detention of the Secretary to the Osun State Government, Teslim Igbalaiye and others over flimsy accusations,” – which they called “a direct attack on the institution of the state government.”

The “disrespectful conduct ” of the Osun Police Commissioner, and manner in which an IGP visit ended with – “baseless, politically-motivated allegations that the State Government is ‘harboring hoodlums in the Government House.

“This is not policing. It is partisan propaganda in uniform,” the Caucus said.

The opposition lawmakers said the President’s appointees have been making “shocking, unpresidential, and inciting statements” – are capable of “eroding whatever goodwill the President has left and creating a very negative public perception of his government.”

“The mask is off. 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 hails from Osun, but the state can not be a personal fiefdom; he must therefore allow the people to freely choose who governs them.

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

“Violence, intimidation, economic sabotage, and the misuse of federal agencies have NO place in a democracy,” the lawmakers declared, warning that “Osun is not a conquered territory. You will not rig this election through EFCC, through the Police, or through thuggery.”

It called on civil society and the international community to hold both the APC and federal government responsible for any breakdown of law and order before, during, and after the Osun election.

“Osun people will vote. Osun people will be protected. And democracy will prevail,” the statement concluded.

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