Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke has directed his attorney-general to withdraw the state’s lawsuit against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission after securing re-election in the August 15 governorship poll, citing a personal phone call from President Bola Tinubu as the reason for the decision.
Adeleke disclosed the move hours after his election victory was confirmed, telling Channels Television that Tinubu’s direct call settled the matter for him. The governor stated that the president’s gesture was sufficient for him to end the legal dispute without further contest.
“Mr. President has done well,” Adeleke told Channels Television. “He called me. What more do I want?” The governor made clear that the president’s intervention, specifically the personal phone call, was the factor that prompted him to instruct the attorney-general to drop the case.
The lawsuit had its origins in a dispute over the EFCC’s decision to freeze Osun State’s statutory allocation account. The freeze restricted the state government’s access to its own funds, and Adeleke had pursued legal action to challenge that restriction before the election took place.
By directing the attorney general to withdraw the case, Adeleke formally ended Osun State’s court challenge against the federal anti-graft agency. The instruction came directly from the governor and was disclosed publicly by Adeleke himself on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics program.
The decision resolved a dispute that had placed the state government in direct legal conflict with a federal agency over the management of Osun’s statutory allocation. That conflict had drawn public attention given the context of an approaching governorship election in the state.
Adeleke’s move to drop the case drew two distinct reactions from observers. Some described the resolution as smart diplomacy, noting that the governor had used Tinubu’s personal engagement to settle a contentious matter without prolonged litigation or further political escalation between Abuja and Osogbo.
Others, however, lamented that the withdrawal amounted to backing down on state resources. Critics in that camp argued that Osun had a legitimate claim to its frozen statutory allocation and that dropping the suit abandoned the state’s legal standing in a matter of direct financial consequence.
The governor did not address those competing assessments directly in his remarks on Channels Television. He confined his public explanation to the phone call from Tinubu, presenting the president’s personal outreach as the conclusive reason for his decision to close the legal chapter.
Tinubu’s call came before the August 15 election, meaning the governor entered polling day already aware of the president’s intervention. Adeleke chose to wait until after his victory was confirmed before announcing publicly that he had given the attorney-general the instruction to withdraw.
The timing placed the announcement within hours of the election result, linking the legal resolution directly to the electoral outcome. Adeleke framed the two events together in his Channels Television interview, speaking about his victory and the lawsuit withdrawal in the same breath.
The EFCC freeze had targeted Osun’s statutory allocation, which is the constitutionally mandated share of federal revenue disbursed to state governments. A freeze on that account directly affects a state government’s ability to meet routine obligations, including salary payments and capital expenditures.
Adeleke did not specify in his Channels Television remarks whether Tinubu had directed the EFCC to lift the freeze as a precondition for the withdrawal, or whether the phone call was a broader gesture of goodwill between the two men that Adeleke chose to reciprocate by ending the suit.
The governor’s statement, “What more do I want,” suggested he regarded Tinubu’s personal engagement as a form of recognition that outweighed the potential legal outcome of continuing the case. The remark drew attention because it linked a state government’s formal legal position to a private telephone conversation.
Adeleke enters his second term as governor of Osun State with the EFCC lawsuit now formally set for withdrawal, the frozen account dispute resolved, and a public acknowledgment on the record that Tinubu’s direct phone call was the deciding factor in closing the matter.
