They Froze Our Salary Account Without Court Order! Adeleke Drags EFCC to High Court Over Frozen Osun Funds Days to Election

Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke has instructed the state’s Ministry of Justice to institute immediate legal action against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) following the anti-graft agency’s directive to freeze a major state government bank account.

Addressing newsmen at the Government House in Osogbo, Governor Adeleke revealed that the state government received official correspondence from its bank conveying an EFCC directive to place a “Post-No-Debit” restriction on the Osun State Statutory Allocation account. The affected account serves as the primary channel for state operational expenses and civil servant salary disbursements.

The governor condemned the move as an unlawful abuse of federal power, pointing out that the anti-graft agency executed the restriction without securing any court order.

“We received a letter from our banker forwarding an instruction from the EFCC to freeze the Osun State Government Account,” Governor Adeleke stated. “This action was taken without any court order. We will not accept a situation where federal agencies trample on the constitutional rights of subnational governments.”

The Osun State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Oluwole Jimi-Bada (SAN), confirmed that legal papers have been prepared for filing at the Federal High Court in Osogbo. While acknowledging that the commission possesses investigative powers, the Attorney General stressed that freezing state government accounts without judicial approval violates established constitutional principles.

The development comes amidst heightened political tension across Osun State as political parties finalize preparations for the August 15 governorship election. The state government alleged that the financial bottleneck was engineered to paralyze public administration and disrupt government operations on the eve of the poll.

Demand has now been placed on EFCC Chairman Ola Olukoyede to present clear legal justifications and factual evidence behind the directive, as the state government seeks urgent court relief to restore full access to its financial channels.