Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State has threatened to contend with President Bola Tinubu’s administration if it fails to desist from persecuting him over his refusal to join the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Mr Mohammed, on Wednesday, during the signing of the state’s 2026 appropriation bill into law, stated that the federal government has employed the service of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to intimidate him, as well as members of his cabinet.

“The ironies of life are full of uncertainties. As a governor, someone who is the head of the opposition, my commissioner has been kept and will not be released by the EFCC. Even when I have immunity as a governor, my name was stupendously mentioned in a motion in a court of law in Nigeria. Me? Bala Mohammed,” the governor stated.

Mr Mohammed revealed that the EFCC filed a criminal charge against the Bauchi State commissioner for finance, Yakubu Adamu, and other defendants, alleging them of financing terrorism.

He noted that politics in the present time has declined to a state where public institutions, like the EFCC, an anti-graft agency, are weaponised to torment opposition figures.

“I don’t have to say anything. I don’t even have to go to the public court. But certainly, politics has become something in Nigeria. The APC-led federal government thinks they can use the courts and institutions of government, like the EFCC, to persecute and prosecute Nigerians who are not within their own party,” the governor said.

Reiterating his refusal to join the APC, Mr Mohammed warned the federal government against subjecting him to criminal treatment. 

He stated that, henceforth, he would refuse to be silent about the federal government’s intimidation tactics.

“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, and I refuse to join their party, and I will not join their party,” he said.

“As a politician, we should not overheat the polity. But I’m not a coward. But I’m just keeping quiet because of the common people. We don’t have to denigrate people before we ascend to power.”

Mr Mohammed slammed the federal government for its failure to extend tangible development to Bauchi State, despite controlling 51 per cent of the country’s resources.

“In my state, they have not provided one kilometre of road. You have not provided water. Even the security agencies, I’m the one paying them to work for us, and they have the guts to talk,” the governor noted.

Calling for a review, the governor also criticised the federal government insistence on implementing the new tax system amid unsettled public concerns.

“The federal government should look at the tax system. In spite of all the impurities, they are going ahead to impoverish the common man, to impoverish the sub-nationals,” Mr Mohammed stated.