The Osun State Government has filed a lawsuit against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), its Executive Chairman and First Bank of Nigeria over the restriction placed on one of the state’s bank accounts.
The suit, filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja, asks the court to remove the restriction immediately and award the state N2 billion in damages.
The state government argued that the action was unlawful and came at a sensitive political period, just days before the August 15 governorship election.
Court documents show that Governor Ademola Adeleke, the Attorney-General of Osun State and the Accountant-General jointly began the legal process through separate but related applications.
The applications include an Originating Summons, a Motion Ex Parte and a request for the case to be heard urgently despite the court’s annual vacation.
The government asked the court to assign the matter to a vacation judge, saying waiting for normal court sittings to resume could negatively affect governance in the state.
According to the court documents, the dispute is over a letter dated August 5, 2026, which was allegedly sent by the EFCC to First Bank directing the bank to restrict the Osun State Government Statutory Allocation Account.
The letter was signed on behalf of the commission’s Director of Investigation and addressed to the bank’s Managing Director and Chief Compliance Officer.
The account is used by the state to receive its monthly allocations from the Federation Account.
The Osun State Government said it discovered the restriction after First Bank informed its officials that the account had been frozen at the request of the EFCC.
In an affidavit filed before the court, the Director of the Osun State Liaison Office in Abuja, Olukunle Emmanuel Alao, said the Attorney-General informed him that the EFCC did not obtain a court order before placing the restriction on the account.
The government argued that the anti-graft agency has no legal authority to freeze a state government’s account through an administrative directive without first getting approval from a competent court.
According to the affidavit, “the 1st Defendant does not possess a power to arbitrarily and indefinitely freeze the account of the State Government merely by issuing an administrative letter.”
The state government also accused First Bank of failing in its duty by obeying the EFCC’s directive without first requesting a valid court order.
The government further argued that the timing of the restriction raised serious concerns because it came shortly before the governorship election.
According to the court filings, the action was “politically motivated and calculated, or has the potential, to cripple the financial operations of the State Government at a particularly sensitive period.”
The affidavit also alleged that the decision was “laced with malice; bad faith and spurned by political interest rather than just and fair administration.”
The government said the action could damage its reputation and reduce public confidence during the election period.
It also maintained that it had not been informed of any court judgment declaring the money in the account to be proceeds of crime.
According to the state government, if investigators suspected any transaction, they should have approached the court for the necessary orders instead of restricting the entire account.
The government explained that the affected account is used to pay workers’ salaries, pensions, healthcare services, education, security operations, road maintenance, environmental sanitation, contractors and other statutory obligations.
It warned that keeping the account under restriction could disrupt essential public services and cause hardship for residents.
Among the requests before the court, the Osun State Government wants the Federal High Court to declare the restriction unlawful, cancel the EFCC’s directive and order First Bank to restore full access to the account.
The government also asked the court to stop the EFCC and the bank from taking similar actions in the future without following due legal process.
In addition, it is seeking N2 billion in damages over what it described as the unlawful restriction of its statutory allocation account.
The government said it filed the applications within 24 hours of learning about the restriction because of the urgency of the matter and the need to prevent disruption to public administration.
Before the lawsuit was filed, the EFCC defended its action, saying the restriction was part of an ongoing investigation into the alleged diversion of public funds.
The commission said it had been investigating the Osun State Government since March 2026 over the alleged handling of Ecology Funds, Intervention Funds and Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) allocations amounting to about N11 billion.
The EFCC also denied that its action was connected to the forthcoming governorship election.
However, President Bola Tinubu later directed the EFCC to immediately reverse the restriction.
The President instructed the anti-graft agency to approach the court to vacate the order freezing the state’s accounts and discontinue every related action connected with the restriction.
Tinubu said he was concerned that the timing of the development could create the impression that the Federal Government was trying to influence the election.
He stated: “I feel deeply embarrassed not by the EFCC’s exercise of its mandate under a court order, but by the timing of the action.”
The President added: “Every action taken by an institution of state, especially at the federal level, is always credited to me, as the President, even when I may not have had any prior knowledge of the action.”
The case is expected to be heard by a vacation judge of the Federal High Court as the Osun State Government seeks urgent judicial intervention before the August 15 governorship election.
