President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday received briefings from the Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ola Olukoyede, and the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Muttaqha Darma, at the State House, Abuja.
The trio discussed the management and disposal of houses seized nationwide by the anti-graft agency, the State House media office revealed in a terse statement/photo release late Tuesday.
It read, “Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Olanipekun Ola Olukoyede, and Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Muttaqha Rabe Darma, met with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on the management and disposal of seized houses nationwide, under the rules of transparency and Accountability at the State House, Abuja. Tuesday, August 18, 2026.”
The meeting is the first public engagement between Tinubu and Olukoyede since the President publicly overruled the commission earlier this month over its handling of a court order freezing the Osun State Government’s accounts, just days before the state’s governorship election.
The EFCC had, on August 5, 2026, obtained a court order freezing Osun’s accounts, citing an investigation into the alleged fraudulent handling of ecology funds, intervention funds, and the state’s Federation Account Allocation Committee allocations, running to about N11bn.
The Osun State Government challenged the freeze in a suit filed the same day at the Federal High Court in Abuja, seeking to nullify the order and claiming N2bn in exemplary damages, while accusing the commission of conducting an unproven “witch-hunt” against the state since March.
Two days later, in a statement he personally signed, Tinubu directed the EFCC to return to court and vacate the freeze order, saying he was “deeply embarrassed not by the EFCC’s exercise of its mandate backed by a court order, but by the timing of the agency’s action,” coming just 10 days to the August 15 poll.
The President said he had deliberately avoided interfering in the commission’s operational activities in the past, but could not allow any federal institution to create the impression that it was being deployed to influence the outcome of the election.
Governor Ademola Adeleke went on to win re-election in the August 15 poll.
Speaking on Sunday shortly after his victory was announced, Adeleke disclosed that he had directed the state’s Attorney General to withdraw the suit against the EFCC, crediting Tinubu’s intervention for the resolution.
“I’m putting them behind. What else do I want? I have instructed my Attorney General to drop it. Mr President has done well. He called me. What more do I want?” Adeleke said.
By Stephen Angbulu
