The 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has alleged that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is politicising the fight against corruption in Nigeria.
This comes after the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) detained the former governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal, over an alleged ₦189 billion fraud on Monday.
Reacting to the arrest in a statement on Tuesday, Atiku attributed Tambuwal’s detention to his role as a member of the opposition coalition, African Democratic Congress (ADC).
“The only reason the EFCC has detained the former Governor of Sokoto State, Senator Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, is because he is a member of the opposition coalition. It is a continuation of the Tinubu-led administration’s agenda to harass, intimidate, and decimate the opposition.
“The reality unfolding before us today is that the Tinubu administration, as with other aspects, has objectified the fight against corruption as a political tool to coerce opposition leaders into the ruling party. 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.
“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 Tinubu, their ‘sins’ are forgiven,” the statement reads in part.
Atiku noted that apprehending opposition members is not how to build institutions and fight the monster of corruption.
“Indeed, such tendencies provide the stimulant for corruption to thrive. We have seen how the EFCC has been used to empty opposition state governors into the ruling party, and the tea party is not about to end anytime soon,” the former vice president said.
He explained that the genuine fight against corruption is a matter that requires the total support of all Nigerians, emphasising that the objectification of it as a political agenda should be roundly condemned by all in civil society spaces and friends of Nigeria in the international community.
“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,” he added.
