EFCC Freezes Osun State Salary Account Ahead of Election

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has frozen a bank account belonging to the Osun State Government just 10 days before the state's governorship election. This action has increased political tensions in the area.

The account, which is with First Bank, has been marked with "Post No Debit (PND)" status. This means there can be no withdrawals or any debit transactions from the account.

Abdul-Jeleel Samakin, the Senior Special Assistant on Media Monitoring to Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke, confirmed this to PREMIUM TIMES via a phone call. He said the account is one of those used by the state government for official financial transactions, including paying salaries.

"It is true that the EFCC has frozen the account, major accounts used by the government for transactions including salary," Mr Samakin stated.

He also mentioned that the governor would speak to the public later on Wednesday to explain what this means for the state. At the time of this report, the EFCC had not given a public reason for freezing the account.

This situation arose shortly after Mr Adeleke claimed that the EFCC was planning to freeze the accounts of the Osun State Government and senior officials ahead of the governorship election scheduled for August 15.

In a statement on Wednesday from the Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Kolapo Alimi, the governor called the alleged plan an attempt to disrupt government activities before the election. He argued that the EFCC does not have the legal right to freeze a state government's account and claimed there was no legal basis for such a move.

"The plan, if true, amounts to the height of lawlessness," the statement said. It added that any effort to restrict the state’s finances days before the election would hurt governance and affect public services.

The EFCC has not yet made any public comments about this situation.

Freezing the account adds more tension to the political and security issues surrounding the upcoming August 15 governorship election. In recent weeks, there have been several high-profile clashes between security agencies and the Osun government.

This includes a police raid on the home of Secretary to the State Government, Teslim Igbalaye, over accusations of vote-buying and harboring a suspect. This operation led to the arrest of Mr Igbalaye and five others, which faced strong backlash from the state government and the ruling Accord Party. They accused security agencies and the main opposition party of targeting government officials. Mr Igbalaye was later released, and the police stated that investigations are ongoing.

Political tension has also risen due to ongoing protests and petitions calling for the redeployment of the former Osun Commissioner of Police, Ibrahim Gotan, over claims of bias. The police authorities eventually moved him and assigned a new commissioner to manage security during the election.