By EJIKE EJIKE, Abuja and PATRICK OCHOGA, Benin
A former member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Ehiozuwa J. Agbonayinma, has asked the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to reopen and prosecute a financial crimes case involving former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, based on allegations contained in an EFCC report issued in 2006.
The former lawmaker, who also served as a member of the Code of Conduct Bureau, made the request in a petition dated August 27, 2026, and filed by his legal representatives, Sagitarian Law Firm.
The petition, exclusively obtained by LEADERSHIP Weekend and signed by the firm’s Principal Counsel, Hannibal Egbe Uwaifo, was received at the office of the EFCC chairman on September 1.
Atiku, in reaction, described the renewed recycling of decades-old allegations against him as the “convulsion” of political opponents cornered by their own failures, who, he said, were unable to defend the hardship Nigerians are enduring and were now desperately searching for an Atiku controversy because they could not survive scrutiny of their own economic record.
In a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said the sudden return to allegations rooted in the political battles of the Obasanjo era was not a demonstration of strength but an admission that his opponents had run out of answers to hunger, declining purchasing power and the unbearable cost of living.
In the letter addressed to the EFCC chairman, the law firm requested that the commission revisit what it described as serious allegations of corrupt practices, money laundering and other financial crimes allegedly involving Atiku.
The firm recalled that sometime between 2005 and 2006, the EFCC investigated allegations of grand corruption involving the then vice-president and subsequently released a report titled “The EFCC Report on Vice-President Abubakar Atiku (Full Report)” in September 2006.
According to the lawyers, the report contained what they described as serious allegations of corrupt practices, including alleged sleaze, money laundering and other financial crimes.
The firm argued that, despite the seriousness of the allegations and what it said was an earlier commitment by the EFCC to prosecute Atiku after he left office, no prosecution had taken place.
It said the former vice-president was protected by constitutional immunity while in office but contended that the immunity should no longer prevent prosecution after he left office.
The lawyers described the continued non-prosecution of the case as a “deliberate dereliction of duty” and alleged that the situation amounted to a violation of the law establishing the anti-graft agency.
They further argued that the case had become a reference point that, in their view, portrayed the EFCC as unwilling to pursue corruption cases involving high-profile individuals.
The petition also referred to an investigation reportedly conducted by the United States Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which, according to the lawyers, examined the same matter and produced a report dated February 4, 2010.
Sagitarian Law Firm urged the EFCC to reactivate its 2006 report and the cited US Senate report as the basis for the immediate prosecution of the former vice-president.
“Prosecution of this case will represent one of the greatest milestone achievements of your anti-corruption body,” the firm stated in the petition.
The lawyers gave the EFCC 14 days to act, warning that failure or refusal by the commission to take action would lead their client to commence legal proceedings against the commission.
