The Osun State Government has dragged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), its Executive Chairman, and First Bank of Nigeria Limited before the Federal High Court in Abuja, accusing the anti-graft agency of unlawfully freezing the state’s Federal Statutory Allocation Account just over a week before the state’s governorship election, in what the government describes as a “politically motivated” move calculated to “cripple” its finances at a “particularly sensitive period.”
Court filings obtained show that the Governor of Osun State, the Attorney-General of Osun State, and the Accountant-General of Osun State filed three separate but related processes at the Federal High Court, Abuja Judicial Division.
They are an Originating Summons, a Motion Ex Parte, and an Ex Parte Summons for Hearing of Urgent Matter on August 5 and 6, 2026.
The suits are registered as FHC/ABJ/CS/1762/2026 and FHC/ABJ/CS/1763/2026, and were filed during the court’s annual vacation, with the state’s lawyers asking a vacation judge to hear the matter urgently rather than wait for the resumption of normal sittings.
According to the court papers, the dispute traces back to a letter dated August 5, 2026, with reference number CR:3000/EFCC/ABJ/HQ/PFS/TA/OSUN/VOL.17/666, addressed to First Bank’s Managing Director and marked for the attention of the bank’s “Chief Compliance Officer.”
The letter was authored by one ACE I Adenike S. Babalola, signing “for: Director, Investigation” at the EFCC.
The letter identifies the target account as “Osun State Government Statutory Allocation Acct,” with account number 2017170947, and reads in part:
The reference to an earlier letter dated April 15, 2026 suggests the EFCC’s interest in the account did not begin on August 5, but the court documents do not disclose what prompted the original April 15 letter or what investigation, if any, is ongoing.
The Osun State Government says it only learned of the restriction on August 5, 2026, when First Bank formally notified it that the account had been “frozen, restricted, blocked or otherwise placed under restraint” at the instance of the EFCC and its chairman.
In an affidavit deposed to by Olukunle Emmanuel Alao, Director of the Osun State Liaison Office in Abuja, the state government states it was informed by the state’s Attorney-General, at about 3:00pm on 5 August 2026, that “no order of any Court was sought and obtained before the 3rd defendant brazenly froze, restricted, blocked or otherwise placed under restraint the account of Osun State Government on the unlawful directive” of the EFCC and its chairman.
The state government’s affidavit goes into considerable detail on what the frozen account funds. It describes the account as “the principal account through which the Government of Osun State receives statutory allocations and discharges its constitutional and statutory financial obligations,” listing its uses as covering: “Payment of salaries, pensions, contractors, suppliers, statutory obligations, public projects, security-related expenditure, healthcare, education and other essential governmental functions.”
The affidavit states that the frozen account funds essential government services.
