Professor Usman Yusuf, former Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), has accused President Bola Tinubu’s administration of using the EFCC to silence him, claiming he was treated like a criminal for criticising the government.
In an interview with Arise Television on Sunday, Yusuf said that his recent imprisonment by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was part of a planned attempt by Tinubu to silence him.
“This government deliberately denied me bail to shake me up… all to try and silence me. But I am not someone who can be silenced,” he said.
In February, the EFCC charged Yusuf with five counts of alleged fraud in the Federal Capital Territory High Court. He pleaded not guilty.
Speaking on the incidents that led to his detention, Yusuf said EFCC operatives stormed his home on 29 January without presenting an arrest warrant.
“They walked into the house and said they wanted to see me, claiming I was expecting them. They only later showed their badges,” he said.
He told how the operators forbade him from changing clothes and barred his wife from providing him with alternate apparel.
Yusuf further described how officers treated him during transport “as if they had captured a notorious criminal like Kachalla Bello Turji”, a well-known bandit commander.
Yusuf spent six days in EFCC jail before his arraignment and was then denied bail, which he claimed was unlawful. “Bail is a constitutionally guaranteed right for any accused person, except in cases of capital offences or terrorism, and my case was neither,” he stated.
Yusuf had to spend another 24 days in Kuje Prison when his bail was denied. He described his imprisonment as a moment of “retreat for rest, prayers, and reflection,” claiming that it only reinforced his
“The whole purpose was for the government of President Bola Tinubu to try to silence any form of dissent,” Yusuf said. “This is coming from a president who himself was once a NADECO activist — someone who fought against the military dictatorship.”
He warned that the current administration is seeking to silence democratic discourse and establish a “one-party dictatorial state.”
Former President Muhammadu Buhari nominated Yusuf as the executive secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme in 2016. The health minister and the NHIS board suspended him in 2017 and 2018 due to corruption charges, and he was eventually dismissed from office in 2019.
