By Ayo Kehinde
Re-elected Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun state said he has directed the state’s Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice to withdraw the government’s lawsuit against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, over the freezing of the state’s statutory allocation account.
Speaking in an interview with Channels Television, hours after he was declared winner of the August 15 governorship election, Adeleke said President Bola Tinubu’s intervention had effectively resolved the dispute.
Adeleke said the President’s decision to intervene, coupled with a personal telephone call, convinced him there was no longer any need to pursue the legal action instituted by his administration against the anti-graft agency.
“I’m putting them behind. What else do I want? I have instructed my Attorney-General to drop it. Mr President has done well. He called me. What more do I want?” Adeleke said.
His announcement formally signals the end of a legal confrontation that had escalated into one of the major political controversies preceding the Osun governorship election.
Despite withdrawing the case, Adeleke insisted that the EFCC’s actions against his administration were politically motivated.
The governor disclosed that some officials of his administration were invited by the commission for questioning, adding that he immediately directed his lawyers to accompany and represent them.
“Well, we have been talking. I have been calling all my lawyers to go there,” he said.
According to Adeleke, some of the officials who honoured the invitations had since been released after questioning.
He, however, absolved President Tinubu of direct involvement in the controversy, insisting the President only became aware of the matter after it had attracted widespread public attention.
“Most of these things, the President doesn’t know. The President has a lot of foreign work and jobs to do,” Adeleke stated.
The governor instead accused his predecessor and Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Gboyega Oyetola, of allegedly using his relationship with the President to influence the EFCC’s actions.
“All these things is Oyetola because he is the cousin to the President. He is dropping the President’s name. I know that the President didn’t know about the EFCC one. That is why he had to call me and stop it,” Adeleke alleged.
Oyetola has yet to publicly respond to the governor’s allegations.
The dispute began on August 5 when the EFCC directed First Bank to place a Post No Debit restriction on the Osun State Government’s statutory allocation account as part of an investigation into the alleged fraudulent handling of about ₦11 billion in Ecology Funds, Intervention Funds and Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) allocations.
The commission said it detected suspicious movements of funds and imposed the restriction pending the conclusion of its investigation.
The Osun State Government challenged the action at the Federal High Court in Abuja through Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/1762/2026, seeking to nullify the freeze order and demanding ₦2 billion in exemplary damages against the EFCC.
At the time, the state government argued that the action was unlawful, politically motivated and capable of paralysing governance by disrupting the payment of salaries and execution of critical government programmes.
The controversy generated nationwide debate because the restriction came barely 10 days before the governorship election, with opposition parties and civil society groups questioning the timing of the anti-graft agency’s action.
Amid the public outcry, President Tinubu directed the EFCC to vacate the freeze order, saying he was embarrassed by the development because actions taken by federal agencies were often attributed to the Presidency even when he had no prior knowledge of them.
