Malami: Anti-Corruption Fight Has Derailed Into a Full-blown Political Witch-hunt — Atiku

Former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, has issued a stern warning that the nation’s anti-corruption war is dangerously sliding off course and mutating into a brazen political witch-hunt.

He cautioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and other anti-graft bodies to purge themselves of partisan contamination before they permanently lose the trust of Nigerians.

Reacting to the arrest and detention of former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), Atiku said in a statement from his media office in Abuja on Thursday that the EFCC is straying far from the noble principles upon which it was created. Instead of upholding justice, he said, the agency is now weaponising its powers to serve narrow political agendas.

According to him, “The politicisation of corruption investigations has rendered the EFCC’s credibility suspect and rubbished the very ideals that inspired its establishment.”

Atiku condemned what he described as the shamelessly selective pursuit of opposition figures like Malami, warning that such targeted harassment exposes the EFCC as an overzealous appendage of the ruling APC — one seemingly committed to imposing a one-party state on Nigeria.

He expressed shock that the EFCC suddenly became hyperactive the moment the African Democratic Congress (ADC) emerged as an opposition force, launching coordinated attacks on key figures such as Malami and Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, while conveniently ignoring glaring corruption cases involving allies of the ruling party.

The Waziri Adamawa recalled how former governors with long-standing corruption cases were handsomely rewarded with ministerial and Ambassadorial appointments by President Tinubu—yet the EFCC looked away without protest.

“We expected the EFCC to voice its objection to the appointment of former governors with unresolved corruption allegations. But partisan loyalty prevailed over integrity,” Atiku said.

He added pointedly that had Malami defected to the APC, the EFCC would have left him untouched, even if he had looted the entire CBN vault.

“Nigerians are watching in disbelief as an agency created to fight corruption willingly turns itself into a lapdog of the ruling APC—used to hound and destabilise credible opposition, while shielding political loyalists from accountability,” he said.

According to the former Vice President, “The EFCC, now operating like a political rottweiler, is deployed to intimidate and coerce politicians into joining the APC. And once they bow to pressure, their corruption cases mysteriously vanish.”

Atiku stressed that no serious nation combats corruption by trading away the independence of its anti-graft institutions in exchange for partisan convenience.

He urged the EFCC leadership to urgently detach itself from political manipulation, warning that the stakes are too high for the agency to barter its integrity for the fleeting interests of any political party.