Melaye Slams Fresh EFCC Petition Against Atiku as ‘Resurrecting the Dead’

Former Kogi West Senator Dino Melaye has strongly condemned a recent petition urging the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to reopen long-dormant allegations of financial crimes against former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, describing the move as a shameful attempt to revive a matter settled more than a decade ago.

The petition, filed by former House of Representatives member Ehiozuwa Agbonayinma (also known as E.J.) through his counsel, Hannibal Egbe Uwaifo, SAN, of Sagitarian Law Firm, was dated August 27, 2026, and received at the EFCC Chairman’s office on September 1. It gives the anti-graft agency a 14-day ultimatum to act on a 2006 EFCC investigative report concerning Atiku during his tenure as Vice President under President Olusegun Obasanjo (2005–2006).

Agbonayinma has threatened legal action against the commission if it fails to reopen the case and prosecute.

The 2006 report, titled “The EFCC Report on Vice-President Abubakar Atiku (Full Report),” followed investigations into allegations of grand corruption, money laundering, abuse of office, and the diversion of funds linked to the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF). Some accounts place the figure involved at around $135 million. The probe occurred amid a bitter political rift between Atiku and Obasanjo. An administrative panel also examined the claims. The petition additionally references a 2010 report by the United States Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

At the time, Atiku, who enjoyed constitutional immunity as Vice President, could not be prosecuted. After leaving office, no criminal conviction followed. On December 20, 2006, a Lagos State High Court set aside the EFCC’s administrative indictment, ruling it unconstitutional and flawed. Atiku has consistently maintained that the allegations were thoroughly examined by the EFCC, an administrative panel, the National Assembly and the courts, and that he prevailed in multiple legal challenges. In a recent statement responding to the fresh petition, he declared that no court ever convicted him, asked what new evidence had emerged after two decades, and challenged anyone with credible proof to present it for legal scrutiny. “A petition is not a conviction… and repetition cannot magically become a judgment of court,” he said.

Melaye, a prominent African Democratic Congress (ADC) chieftain and vocal supporter of Atiku (the party’s 2027 presidential candidate), reacted sharply in a video posted on his official X account. He called the petition shameful and an attempt “to resurrect the dead.”

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“It is very shameful that an unstable character like E.J. will be writing a petition to the EFCC against Atiku Abubakar to resurrect the dead,” Melaye said. “A petition that was thrown out over 10 years ago is what he is trying to resurrect. What is the integrity of the commercial petitioner?

“He left APC in an elaborate press conference in Edo. Within one month, he left APC, went to ADC and then NDC, and now back to APC. Is that a stable character? Is that a man who can pen a petition? Of course, he is myopic and disorganised.”

This is not Melaye’s first intervention. In earlier comments, he warned the Federal Government and EFCC against inviting, arresting or interrogating Atiku over what he described as frivolous petitions. He stressed that Atiku was part of the government that created the EFCC and insisted the agency should not be used “to torment the creator of the EFCC.” Melaye further declared that the ADC and its supporters would mobilise mass public resistance if Atiku were targeted, arguing that those in government represent less than one percent of Nigerians and that “the people own government.”

Agbonayinma has defended his action, insisting it is not politically motivated by the 2027 elections but aimed at accountability. He has noted that Atiku could not be prosecuted while in office due to immunity and questioned why the EFCC has not acted on its own earlier findings.

As of now, there is no confirmation that the EFCC has taken any step to invite or reinvestigate Atiku on the basis of the petition.

The development has injected fresh tension into the political landscape ahead of the 2027 general elections, with opposition figures viewing the revival of two-decade-old allegations as selective and politically timed.