Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, has said that the continued detention of former governor of Sokoto State, Sen. Aminu Tambuwal, was part of an agenda to harass, intimidate, and decimate the opposition.
Atiku said ,in a statement, on Tuesday in Abuja that the only reason the EFCC had detained Tambuwal was because he was a member of the opposition coalition.
He alleged that the EFCC was being used as a political tool to coerce opposition leaders into the ruling party.
“We are living witnesses to a growing trend where the state and its operators have assumed the roles of bully by making corruption and the fight against it a political agenda.
“Certainly, that is not the objective for which I worked hard during our administration to create the EFCC,’’ he said.
Atiku said that said using antigraft agencies to target opposition with corruption allegations, while members of the ruling party with allegation of corruption move free was not how to build institutions.
“That, certainly, is not how to fight the monster of corruption. Indeed, such tendencies provide the stimulant for corruption to thrive.
“We have seen how the EFCC has been used to empty opposition state governors into the ruling party, and the tea party is not about to end anytime soon,’’ he said.
Atiku said, while the genuine fight against corruption was a matter that required the total support of all Nigerians, the objectification of it as a political agenda should be condemned by all stakeholders.
“We have in recent times witnessed the use of anti-corruption agencies in coercing political leaders into the ruling party.
“Our assurance to Nigerians is that we would never succumb to these anti-democratic machinations of railroading our people into a one-party dictatorship,’’ he said.