BAUCHI State Governor and Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governors’ Forum, Bala Mohammed, has accused the Federal Government of deploying the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as a tool of political persecution against him and members of his administration because of his refusal to defect to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
News Point Nigeria reports that the governor made the allegation on Wednesday in Bauchi during the signing of the state’s 2026 appropriation bill into law, a ceremony that turned into a sharp political rebuke of the Federal Government and its handling of opposition figures.
Governor Mohammed disclosed that one of his commissioners is currently being detained by the EFCC, describing the action as part of a broader attempt to intimidate and silence him as a leading opposition figure.
“As a governor and the head of the opposition, my commissioner has been kept and will not be released by the EFCC,” he said. “Even when I have immunity as a sitting governor, my name was stupendously mentioned in a motion in a court of law in Nigeria — me, Bala Mohammed.”
He lamented what he described as the politicisation of state institutions, arguing that the use of law enforcement agencies against political opponents had become widespread under the APC-led Federal Government.
“I don’t even have to say anything. I don’t have to go to the public court,” the governor said. “But certainly, politics has become something else in Nigeria. The APC-led federal government believes it can use the courts and institutions of government, like the EFCC, to persecute Nigerians who are not in their party.”
Despite the alleged pressure, Mohammed insisted that no amount of harassment or intimidation would force him to abandon the PDP for the APC, declaring his resolve to remain in opposition.
“I have kept quiet in the interest of peace and security,” he said. “But if they don’t stop, we are going to declare war. I assure you, we are not going to keep quiet any longer. I won’t allow anybody to criminalise me because I’m not in their party. I refuse to join their party, and I will not join their party.”
The Bauchi governor also accused the Federal Government of neglecting his state despite controlling the bulk of national resources. According to him, the Federal Government has failed to execute meaningful projects in Bauchi.
“In my state, they have not provided one kilometre of road. You have not provided water,” he said. “Even the security agencies, I am the one paying them to work for us and yet they have the guts to talk.”
Mohammed further criticised the Federal Government’s tax policies, warning that the current tax regime, if left unchecked, could deepen poverty and hardship among Nigerians.
Meanwhile, the EFCC recently filed a fresh criminal charge against the Bauchi State Commissioner for Finance, Yakubu Adamu, and other defendants over alleged terrorism financing involving a total sum of $9.7 million.
The anti-graft agency has not publicly responded to the governor’s allegations, nor has it issued a statement addressing claims that its actions are politically motivated.