Atiku Abubakar, a former vice president, has warned that what he calls an anti-corruption crusade is turning into a full-blown political witch-hunt.
Atiku also told the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and other anti-corruption groups to get rid of their partisan ties before they lose the trust of Nigerians for good. He said that the country’s fight against corruption is dangerously going off course and turning into a blatant political witch hunt.
Atiku said in a statement from his media office in Abuja yesterday that the EFCC is going too far away from the good ideas that led to its creation. This was in response to the arrest and detention of Abubakar Malami (SAN), the former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice. He claimed that instead of upholding justice, the agency is now using its powers as weapons to further limited political goals, according to Daily Independent.
He said, “The politicization of corruption investigations has made the EFCC’s credibility questionable and destroyed the very ideals that led to its creation.”
Atiku spoke out against what he called the “shamelessly selective” targeting of opposition people like Malami. He warned that this kind of harassment makes the EFCC look like an overzealous arm of the ruling APC, which seems to want to turn Nigeria into a one-party state.
He was shocked that the EFCC suddenly became very active when the African Democratic Congress (ADC) started to oppose the ruling party. They launched coordinated attacks on important people like Malami and Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, while conveniently ignoring obvious cases of corruption involving members of the ruling party.
The Waziri Adamawa remembered how President Tinubu gave former governors who had been involved in corruption cases for a long time ministerial and ambassadorial jobs, but the EFCC didn’t say anything about it.
“We thought the EFCC would say something about the nomination of former governors who still had corruption charges against them. Atiku stated, “But loyalty to one’s party won out over honesty.”
He further said that if Malami had joined the APC, the EFCC would not have bothered him, even if he had stolen everything from the CBN vault.
He stated, “Nigerians are watching in disbelief as an agency created to fight corruption willingly turns itself into a lapdog of the ruling APC—used to hound and destabilize credible opposition, while shielding political loyalists from accountability.”
The former vice president said, “The EFCC is now acting like a political rottweiler to scare and force politicians to join the APC.” And when they give in to pressure, their corruption cases suddenly go away.
Atiku said that no serious country fights corruption by giving up the independence of its anti-corruption agencies in return for political convenience.
He told the EFCC leaders that they needed to quickly stop being used for political purposes and that the agency’s integrity was too important to be traded for the short-term goals of any political party.
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