Former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, and the African Democratic Congress, ADC, has accused the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, of turning law enforcement into a political tool, following the revocation of bail earlier granted former Attorney-General of the Federation, Mallam Abubakar Malami (SAN).
The EFCC promptly responded, denying claims by Malami that his bail was revoked over his attendance of a political gathering in Kebbi State. EFCC insisted that the matter had nothing to do with politics, but everything to do with unmet bail conditions.
Reacting to Malami’s continued detention, Atiku said anti-corruption institutions have abandoned their core responsibilities and converting the anti-graft campaign into what he termed a “full-blown political witch-hunt.”
In a statement released by his media office and circulated by his adviser, Paul Ibe, Atiku cautioned that the EFCC, and other agencies risk losing public confidence unless they “purge themselves of partisan contamination.”
Atiku argued “that the nation’s anti-corruption war is dangerously sliding off course and mutating into a brazen political witch-hunt.”
He claimed the EFCC is “straying far from the noble principles” on which it was founded, alleging that the agency is now “weaponising its powers to serve narrow political agendas.”
According to him, “The politicisation of corruption investigations has rendered the EFCC’s credibility suspect and rubbished the very ideals that inspired its establishment.”
