Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has reacted to the reported detention of the former Sokoto State governor, Sen. Aminu Tambuwal, accusing the President Bola Tinubu’s administration of weaponising the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) against political opponents
Atiku made the allegation in a post on his social media accounts on Tuesday, claiming Tambuwal’s arrest was “solely because he is a member of the opposition coalition.”
He described the move as part of a broader agenda to “harass, intimidate, and decimate the opposition.”
According to him, the anti-graft fight under the current government has been turned into “a political tool to coerce opposition leaders into the ruling party,” warning that such actions undermine democratic governance.
“We are living witnesses to a growing trend where the state and its operators have assumed the roles of a bully by making corruption and the fight against it a political agenda,” Atiku wrote. “Certainly, that is not the objective for which I worked hard during our administration to create the EFCC.”
The former vice president alleged that opposition figures often face “phantom corruption allegations” that disappear once they align with the ruling party. He warned that the practice could entrench corruption rather than curb it.
Atiku also claimed that anti-corruption agencies have been used to pressure opposition governors into defecting, describing it as a “machination to railroad Nigeria into a one-party dictatorship.”
While expressing support for a genuine anti-corruption drive, Atiku urged civil society groups and the international community to condemn what he called the “politicisation” of the EFCC.
“Our assurance to Nigerians is that we would never succumb to these anti-democratic machinations,” he
