President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday met with the Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, and the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Muttaqha Rabe Darma, at the State House, Abuja.
The meeting focused on the management and disposal of houses seized nationwide by the anti-graft agency, with emphasis on transparency and accountability.
The State House media office disclosed the meeting in a statement and photographs released on Tuesday night.
It said Olukoyede and Darma briefed Tinubu on “the management and disposal of seized houses nationwide, under the rules of transparency and Accountability” at the State House.
The meeting was the first public engagement between Tinubu and Olukoyede since the President intervened in the EFCC’s freezing of the Osun State Government’s accounts earlier this month.
On August 5, the EFCC obtained a Federal High Court order freezing Osun’s accounts over an investigation into the alleged mismanagement of about N11 billion in ecology funds, intervention funds and allocations from the Federation Account Allocation Committee.
The Osun State Government challenged the order in court the same day, seeking its nullification and N2 billion in exemplary damages. The state also accused the EFCC of conducting an unproven “witch-hunt” against it since March.
Two days later, Tinubu directed the EFCC to return to court and vacate the freeze order, stressing that he was “deeply embarrassed not by the EFCC’s exercise of its mandate backed by a court order, but by the timing of the agency’s action.”
The President noted that the freeze came just 10 days before the August 15 governorship election and said he could not allow any federal institution to create the impression that it was being used to influence the poll.
Tinubu had previously said he deliberately avoided interfering in the EFCC’s operational activities.
Following his re-election, Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke disclosed on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics that he had directed the state’s Attorney General to withdraw the suit against the EFCC.
“I’m putting them behind. What else do I want? I have instructed my Attorney General to drop it. Mr President has done well. He called me. What more do I want?” Adeleke said.
Tuesday’s meeting came three days after Adeleke secured re-election and shortly after the Osun State Government withdrew its suit against the EFCC.
