Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, on Tuesday, accused the All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government of using the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to intimidate and bully the opposition into defecting to the APC.
Atiku also alleged that the EFCC detained the former Sokoto State governor, Senator Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, because he is a member of the opposition Coalition.
The former vice president, in a statement posted on his social media platforms on Tuesday, described the detention of Tambuwal and other opposition figures, as “a continuation of the Tinubu-led administration’s agenda to harass, intimidate, and decimate the opposition.”
He accused the President Bola Tinubu-led administration of hiding under the fight against corruption to coerce opposition leaders into joining the ruling party.
He stated, “We are living witnesses to a growing trend where the state and its operators have assumed the roles of a bully by making corruption and the fight against it a political agenda. Certainly, that is not the objective for which I worked hard during our administration to create the EFCC.
“It is as though today, anyone who associates with the opposition is a target for phantom corruption allegations and, it is as though, as soon as they are coerced into the political agenda of President Tinubu, their ‘sins’ are forgiven.”
Atiku, was the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2023 general elections, said the path being toed by the Tinubu administration was not how to build institutions.
He added, “That, certainly, is not how to fight the monster of corruption. Indeed, such tendencies provide the stimulant for corruption to thrive.
“We have seen how the EFCC has been used to empty opposition state governors into the ruling party, and the tea party is not about to end anytime soon. While the genuine fight against corruption is a matter that requires the total support of all Nigerians, the objectification of it as a political agenda should be roundly condemned by all in civil society spaces and friends of Nigeria in the international community.”
Atiku, who is also a key figure in the newly formed coalition, further said Nigerians had witnessed the use of anti-corruption agencies in coercing political leaders into the ruling party.
“Our assurance to Nigerians is that we would never succumb to this anti-democratic machinations of railroading our people into a one-party dictatorship,” he stated.
