Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to save the image of Nigeria by avoiding being used as a weapon of political battles.

The organisations warned the anti-graft agency that prioritising political battles that are counterproductive to a robust anti-corruption policy of the President Bola Tinubu administration will backfire.

Speaking under the auspices of the Committee for the Defence of Democracy and Rule of Law, the CSOs noted that the seeming fixation of the anti-graft agency on particular targets, fierce media trial and the network of opposition figures publicly displaying their affinity with the Commission on particular matters, easily reflected political hatchet jobs that must be discouraged.

Addressing journalists in Abuja, Co-Convener of the forum, Kayode Mogbojuri, who spoke on behalf of the over 100 CSOs, said the EFCC could not afford to become a tool of political witch-hunt in the hands of every “disgruntled politician, seeking political retribution against opponents or perceived enemies”.

Mogbojuri alleged that how the EFCC is handling the current corruption allegations against the immediate past Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, is becoming a case of political witch-hunt by his political opponents.

He accused the anti-graft agency of being a ready tool to be manipulated into fighting proxy wars for politicians.

Mogbojuri said: “In every country where the fight against corruption has been politicised, corruption has not only thrived but also imploded. Politics and law enforcement should be water and oil that cannot mix.”

The activists said that the fact that the amended charge read that the former governor committed the said offence sometime in September 2015, when he had not even become governor, also showed that it was a hurried attempt to nail him without due diligence, saying that it was an error, which would only compound the embarrassment this had earned for the nation’s anti-corruption struggle.

The CSOs also referred to the EFCC’s statement that the former governor was at large, stating that it was the greatest evidence of political persecution because there had been no prior publication that he had been invited.

According to them, statements against Belo and the state government, credited to one JS Okutepa, counsel to the Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate in Kogi State, already gave political colouration to the fresh EFCC allegations.