Oba Maduabuchi, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, has declared that the president possesses no legal authority to manage or issue directives to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Maduabuchi shared these views during a Thursday appearance on Arise Television’s ‘Prime Time’ program.
He emphasized that it is improper for the agency to receive instructions regarding its targets. According to the lawyer, the EFCC is designed to act as an independent force against corruption, regardless of whether it originates within the executive, legislative, or judicial branches of government. His comments followed the recent freezing of the Osun State government’s bank account by the agency shortly before the gubernatorial election.
While President Bola Tinubu recently ordered the commission to reverse the freeze on the account, Maduabuchi contends that such presidential intervention is fundamentally flawed. He argued that if an agency is tasked with investigating a branch of government, that branch should not hold the power to control or publicly command the agency, as doing so severely undermines public trust in the institution.
