The Osun State Government has filed suit against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, its chairman and First Bank of Nigeria over the freezing of its federal statutory allocation account.
Court documents show the governor, attorney-general and accountant-general of Osun initiated three related processes at the Federal High Court in Abuja on August 5 and 6, registered as FHC/ABJ/CS/1762/2026 and FHC/ABJ/CS/1763/2026. The filings include an originating summons, a motion ex parte and an urgent hearing request submitted during the court’s annual vacation.
The state alleges the EFCC directed First Bank to freeze account number 2017170947 — described as the principal account through which Osun receives statutory allocations — by administrative letter alone and without first obtaining a court order. It learned of the restriction on August 5 when the bank notified it that the account had been “frozen, restricted, blocked or otherwise placed under restraint.”
In an affidavit, the state government said the action was “politically motivated and calculated, or has the potential, to cripple the financial operations of the State Government at a particularly sensitive period,” arriving barely 10 days before the governorship election. It further claimed the freeze was “laced with malice; bad faith and spurned by political interest rather than just and fair administration” and intended “to create hatred for the government of the day so that people stop supporting the government.”
The affidavit stressed that the EFCC “does not possess a power to arbitrarily and indefinitely freeze the account of the State Government merely by issuing an administrative letter” and that First Bank “woefully failed” in its duty of care by complying without a court order. It noted the state was “not aware of any judicial pronouncement declaring the entirety of the funds in the said Account to be proceeds of crime” and that the commission had not identified any specific transaction under investigation.
The frozen account funds salaries, pensions, contractor payments, healthcare, education, security and other essential services. Osun is seeking declarations that the freeze is unlawful, an order compelling the bank to restore access, a restraint on further similar actions without due process, N2 billion in damages and interim relief to unfreeze the account pending determination of the suit.
The state argued the matter required urgent hearing because delay would cause irreparable harm to public services. Earlier on Thursday, President Bola Tinubu directed the EFCC to approach the court to vacate any freezing order and discontinue related actions, citing the proximity of the election.
