Osun Govt Account Frozen Over Alleged N11bn Fraud Probe, Suspicious Fund Transfers – EFCC

 

Efcc

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has said it froze the Osun State Government’s bank account as part of an ongoing investigation into the alleged fraudulent handling of about N11bn, insisting that the action was taken to prevent the movement of public funds into suspicious accounts.

The anti-graft agency disclosed this in a statement posted on its official X page on Wednesday amid controversies surrounding the freezing of the state’s account ahead of the August 15 governorship election.

According to the commission, its investigation into the finances of the Osun State Government began in March 2026 and centres on the alleged fraudulent handling of Ecology Funds, Intervention Funds and allocations from the Federation Account Allocation Committee amounting to N11bn.

OSUN DEFENDER reports that the development came hours after Governor Ademola Adeleke accused the anti-graft agency of planning to freeze the state government’s accounts and those of some senior officials, alleging that the move was aimed at disrupting government operations ahead of the election.

In a statement issued earlier on Wednesday by the Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Kolapo Alimi, Adeleke maintained that the EFCC had no legal basis to freeze the state’s accounts and warned that such an action would amount to an abuse of power.

A senior government official had also disclosed that a “Post No Debit” restriction had already been placed on one of the state’s salary accounts domiciled with First Bank.

“The account has been frozen by the EFCC. This is no longer speculation. The governor will brief the public shortly on the development,” the official said.

But the EFCC said some officials of the state government, including the Accountant General, had already been questioned by its investigators as part of the ongoing probe.

The commission explained that although the investigation had been ongoing for months, it only placed a Post No Debit order on the account after detecting what it described as suspicious movements of funds from August 2, 2026.

It alleged that huge sums were being transferred from the state’s accounts into different corporate entities, prompting the commission to freeze the affected accounts to halt the transactions.

The agency maintained that the action was in line with its preventive mandate of safeguarding public funds and denied that the decision was influenced by the forthcoming governorship election in the state.

It added that other state governments were also under financial scrutiny, stressing that the Osun case was not isolated.

The commission urged Nigerians to disregard what it described as false narratives and attempts to politicise its actions.

The statement read, “The Commission has been busy investigating the Osun State Government since March, 2026, regarding the alleged fraudulent handling of Ecology Funds, Intervention Funds, and the Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) account to the tune of N11,000,000,000 (Eleven Billion Naira only).”

“The Commission noticed huge transfers of funds into different corporate entities and had to swiftly halt the trend by freezing the accounts from which such heavy funds are being moved.

“While the Commission is fully aware of the impending governorship election in Osun State, it has a responsibility to act in defence of the sanctity of the funds of the state.

“The Osun State government account was frozen to save public funds from being looted,” the EFCC noted.

As at the time of filing this report, the Osun State Government had yet to respond to the