Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana, has criticised President Bola Tinubu’s intervention in the freezing of the Osun State Government’s bank accounts, arguing that the President should have acted through the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) rather than issuing a direct directive to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Falana said that since the EFCC obtained a court order before placing the restriction on the accounts, any effort to reverse the action should also have followed due legal process.

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According to Falana, the EFCC operates as an independent agency and is not subject to direct presidential control in the discharge of its statutory duties. He noted that the Osun State Government had already approached the court to challenge the ex parte order freezing the accounts before Tinubu intervened. “In intervening in the Osun State crisis, President Tinubu ought to have respected the independent status of the EFCC and the due process of law. As far as the law is concerned, the EFCC chairman is not at the beck and call of the President,” Falana said.

The senior lawyer argued that the President could have instructed the Attorney-General to invoke Section 174 of the 1999 Constitution by taking over the case and either applying to vacate the court order or withdrawing the matter entirely. Alternatively, he said the AGF could have declined to oppose the application already filed by the Osun State Government seeking to set aside the freezing order. Despite his criticism of the procedure adopted, Falana welcomed the eventual restoration of the state’s access to its funds, concluding with a reference to William Shakespeare’s famous phrase: “All is well that ends well.”