By Daniel Oluwatobiloba Popoola
President Bola Tinubu has received briefings from the Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, and the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Muttaqha Darma, on the management and disposal of houses seized nationwide by the anti-graft agency.
The meeting, held on Tuesday, 18 August, 2026, at the State House, Abuja, focused on ensuring transparency and accountability in the handling of seized properties across the country, according to a statement and photo release issued by the State House media office.
The statement 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.”
The engagement marked the first public meeting between Tinubu and Olukoyede since the President publicly overruled the commission earlier in the 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 (FAAC) allocations, amounting to about N11 billion.
The Osun State Government subsequently challenged the freeze in a suit filed the same day at the Federal High Court in Abuja, seeking to nullify the order and claiming N2 billion 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, explaining that 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, which came just 10 days before the August 15 poll.
The President explained that 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.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics shortly after his victory was announced, Osun State Governor, Ademola 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?”
