The Osun State Government has dragged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), its Executive Chairman, and First Bank of Nigeria Limited before the Federal High Court in Abuja.
It accused the anti-graft agency of unlawfully freezing the state’s Federal Statutory Allocation Account just over a week before the state’s governorship election, in what the government describes as a “politically motivated” move calculated to “cripple” its finances at a “particularly sensitive period.”
Court filings obtained by SaharaReporters show that the Governor of Osun State, the Attorney-General of Osun State, and the Accountant-General of Osun State filed three separate but related processes at the Federal High Court, Abuja Judicial Division.
They are an Originating Summons, a Motion Ex Parte, and an Ex Parte Summons for Hearing of Urgent Matter on August 5 and 6, 2026.
The suits are registered as FHC/ABJ/CS/1762/2026 and FHC/ABJ/CS/1763/2026, and were filed during the court’s annual vacation, with the state’s lawyers asking a vacation judge to hear the matter urgently rather than wait for the resumption of normal sittings.
According to the court papers, the dispute traces back to a letter dated August 5, 2026, with reference number CR:3000/EFCC/ABJ/HQ/PFS/TA/
The letter was authored by one ACE I Adenike S. Babalola, signing “for: Director, Investigation” at the EFCC.
The letter identifies the target account as “Osun State Government Statutory Allocation Acct,” with account number 2017170947, and reads in part:
The reference to an earlier letter dated April 15, 2026 suggests the EFCC’s interest in the account did not begin on August 5, but the court documents do not disclose what prompted the original April 15 letter or what investigation, if any, is ongoing.
The Osun State Government says it only learned of the restriction on August 5, 2026, when First Bank formally notified it that the account had been “frozen, restricted, blocked or otherwise placed under restraint” at the instance of the EFCC and its chairman.
In an affidavit deposed to by Olukunle Emmanuel Alao, Director of the Osun State Liaison Office in Abuja, the state government states it was informed by the state’s Attorney-General, at about 3:00pm on 5 August 2026, that “no order of any Court was sought and obtained before the 3rd defendant brazenly froze, restricted, blocked or otherwise placed under restraint the account of Osun State Government on the unlawful directive” of the EFCC and its chairman.
What The Account Is Used For
The state government’s affidavit goes into considerable detail on what the frozen account funds. It describes the account as “the principal account through which the Government of Osun State receives statutory allocations and discharges its constitutional and statutory financial obligations,” listing its uses as covering: “Payment of salaries, pensions, contractors, suppliers, statutory obligations, public projects, security-related expenditure, healthcare, education and other essential governmental functions.”
The affidavit states that the frozen account funds essential government services, including healthcare, workers’ salaries, school grants, water supply, environmental sanitation, fire services, road maintenance, public transportation, and security operations.
The state also says it has continued to bear the financial burden of funding local government councils in Osun because the Federal Government has withheld statutory local government allocations, a claim tied to a separate, ongoing dispute.
The Osun State Government’s case rests on the argument that the EFCC does not have the power to freeze a state government’s statutory account by administrative letter alone, without first obtaining a court order
The affidavit states: “That the 1st Defendant does not possess a power to arbitrarily and indefinitely freeze the account of the State Government merely by issuing an administrative letter to the State’s banker as contained in Exhibit OSG 1 or any documents at all.”
It adds that First Bank, as banker to the state government, “woefully failed” in its duty of care by complying with the EFCC’s directive “without any order of a court of competent jurisdiction.”
Beyond the legal argument, the state government’s affidavit makes a series of pointed political allegations.
It argues that the timing of the freeze, arriving, by its own account, “barely ten (10) days” before the Osun governorship election, cannot be coincidental.
The state government argues that “the action is politically motivated and calculated, or has the potential, to cripple the financial operations of the State Government at a particularly sensitive period.”
The affidavit goes further, alleging that the EFCC’s action is “laced with malice; bad faith and spurned by political interest rather than just and fair administration,” and that it is designed “to create hatred for the government of the day so that people stop supporting the government.”
It also claims the letter was authored “in order to corner political advantage and wrestle down the image of the Government of Osun State before the teaming supporters and electorate,” and that the freeze amounts to “continuous harassment of officials of Osun State Government and clapping down on its statutory funds at the onset to the election period…”
Notably, the affidavit also states that the state government is “not aware of any judicial pronouncement declaring the entirety of the funds in the said Account to be proceeds of crime.”
According to the government, the EFCC “has not identified a particular transaction or amount as being subject to investigation,” adding that if the Commission believes specific funds or transactions are connected to an unlawful act, it “ought to invoke the appropriate statutory procedure and, where necessary, approach the court for an order authorizing the restriction” rather than freeze the entire account.
The state government argued that maintaining the freeze would disrupt the payment of salaries, pensions and other public services, causing widespread hardship, worsening hunger and unemployment, deteriorating healthcare, and increasing insecurity that could spread beyond Osun State.
The Osun State Government is asking the Federal High Court to declare the EFCC’s freezing of its account unlawful, nullify the restriction, compel First Bank to immediately restore access to the account, restrain the EFCC and the bank from taking similar action without due process, award ₦2 billion in damages, and grant interim orders unfreezing the account pending the determination of the suit.
Because the case was filed during the Federal High Court’s annual vacation, the Osun State Government asked the vacation judge to hear it urgently, arguing that delaying the matter would seriously harm public interest and disrupt government operations.
It maintained that the urgency was genuine, the potential damage irreparable, and that it filed the suit within 24 hours of learning about the EFCC’s action.
The state also argued that the freeze worsened its financial burden, noting it has been funding local governments from the affected account amid an ongoing dispute over local government allocations.
On Wednesday, the EFCC defended its decision to freeze the state government’s bank account, saying the action was taken to prevent the alleged diversion of public funds under investigation and was not connected to the forthcoming governorship election in the state.
In a statement issued by its Head of Media and Publicity, Dele Oyewale, the anti-graft agency said it was compelled to clarify the reasons behind the action amid public reactions and allegations of political interference.
According to the EFCC, it had been investigating the Osun State Government since March 2026 over the alleged fraudulent handling of Ecology Funds, Intervention Funds and allocations from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) amounting to N11 billion.
However, earlier on Thursday, President Bola Tinubu directed the EFCC to immediately approach the court to vacate the order freezing the bank accounts of the Osun State Government, saying the timing of the action, coming just days before the state’s governorship election, could create the impression of federal interference in the poll.
The President also instructed the anti-graft agency to discontinue all related actions connected to the freezing of the state’s accounts.
In a statement, Tinubu said he was “deeply embarrassed” by the timing of the EFCC’s action, stressing that although the commission acted pursuant to a court order and within its statutory mandate, the public would inevitably attribute the development to his administration.
“I feel deeply embarrassed not by the EFCC’s exercise of its mandate under a court order, but by the timing of the action,” the President said.
“Every action taken by an institution of state, especially at the federal level, is always credited to me, as the President, even when I may not have had any prior knowledge of the action.”
