The presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the 2027 general election, Adewole Adebayo, has called on President Bola Tinubu to resign over his directive ordering the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to lift the restriction placed on Osun State Government’s bank accounts.

Adebayo argued that the President’s intervention amounted to unconstitutional interference in the affairs of an independent anti-graft agency, insisting that the EFCC Chairman, Ola Olukoyede, merely discharged his statutory responsibilities after obtaining a court order.

Speaking with journalists at the SDP National Secretariat in Abuja on Thursday, the former presidential candidate dismissed calls for Olukoyede’s resignation, maintaining that if the anti-graft agency acted unlawfully, the Osun State Government had sufficient legal channels to challenge its actions.

“The person who should resign is President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. I don’t have enough evidence to suggest that the EFCC chairman should resign. The only person who is at fault here is the President himself,” Adebayo declared.

The controversy followed Tinubu’s directive to the EFCC on Thursday to unfreeze Osun State’s accounts, describing the timing of the restriction as questionable. The commission had on Wednesday placed a restriction on the accounts over an ongoing investigation into the alleged fraudulent management of Ecology Funds, Intervention Funds and Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) allocations estimated at about N11 billion.

The action came just 10 days before the August 15 governorship election in Osun State.

Adebayo maintained that the President’s intervention undermined the rule of law because the EFCC’s action was backed by a valid court order, stressing that disputes arising from such actions should be settled in court rather than through political directives.

“If EFCC wrongly froze the account of the Osun State Government, there are legal remedies that couldm be taken to unfreeze it, including getting damages against EFCC,” he said.

He argued that the Osun State Government should have approached the courts to challenge the restriction instead of seeking political intervention, adding that the state’s Attorney General could institute legal proceedings against the Federal Government if necessary.

The SDP chieftain further insisted that the President lacked the constitutional authority to dictate how the EFCC should conduct investigations or withdraw matters already before the courts.

“So President Tinubu ought to be impeached if there was a National Assembly. But now he should resign because what he’s saying is that he has power to instruct EFCC, go against this person, don’t go against this person,” he stated.

Adebayo said he had consistently defended the EFCC and other security agencies, including the Nigeria Police Force and the Department of State Services, arguing that they should not be blamed for carrying out difficult assignments under political pressure.

He warned that allowing elected officials to influence the operations of anti-corruption agencies would weaken democratic institutions, erode public confidence in the justice system and compromise the independence of law enforcement bodies.

According to him, while security agencies are not immune from mistakes, any grievances against them should always be addressed through the courts rather than political interference.

He urged Nigerians to hold elected officials accountable for respecting constitutional limits, describing the Osun account controversy as a reminder of the need to strengthen institutional independence and uphold the rule of law.