‘Amusing Lots’: Presidency Slams Opposition, Denies Weaponising EFCC
The Presidency has launched a scathing attack on opposition politicians who accused the President Bola Tinubu administration of stifling democracy and weaponising the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), describing them as a “failed opposition engaging in subterfuge.”
In a statement released on Sunday by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, the government dismissed the opposition’s concerns as an “empty search for scapegoats.”
The reaction follows a meeting of opposition figures on Sunday, where they alleged that the recent wave of defections to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) poses a threat to multi-party democracy and that the anti-graft agency is being used to target political opponents.
Firing back, Onanuga described the critics as “amusing lots” who are merely “blowing hot air” to confuse the polity.
“Nigeria’s so-called opposition politicians, comprising some of those left in a dying political party and a sprinkling of some failed political office aspirants regrouping in a platform struggling to find its bearings, are amusing lots,” Onanuga stated.
He defended the recent influx of politicians into the APC, attributing it to the “noticeable gains of President Bola Tinubu’s reform programme” rather than coercion.
“None of the people who joined the governing APC was pressured to do so. They all did so of their own free will. Our constitution guarantees freedom of association and affords our people the right to change their political leanings at any time of their choosing,” he said.
Onanuga further queried, “We may ask: when politicians were moving in droves to the now-dying Peoples Democratic Party between 2000 and 2015, was Nigeria’s democracy imperilled?”
Addressing the allegations regarding the EFCC, the presidential aide maintained that the commission is an independent institution that does not take directives from the President.
He suggested that the opposition’s outcry is a preemptive tactic by individuals with questions to answer regarding their past stewardship.
“We find it curious that the same people who claimed they want to rescue Nigeria are now the ones waging a war of attrition against accountability and probity,” Onanuga noted.
“Allegations of ‘weaponisation’ are distractions from these politicians, who are running short of campaign issues to challenge President Tinubu and the APC’s success in less than three years in office.”
He pointedly remarked on the background of those who signed the opposition’s statement, hinting at their own legal entanglements both locally and internationally.
“It is instructive that some of them were previously investigated and prosecuted by the EFCC even before President Tinubu took office in 2023… Are they now signing statements because their chickens are coming home to roost?”
The Presidency advised the politicians not to undermine the nation’s institutions in a bid to “escape accountability and encourage impunity.”
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