Nigeria, Aug. 6 -- The Osun State Government has rejected the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission's (EFCC) claim that it froze its bank account over an ongoing investigation into the alleged diversion of N11 billion and suspicious move of the funds, describing the allegation as false and an attempt to justify what it called "an unlawful action."

In a Thursday statement signed by Kolapo Alimi, the state's Commissioner for Information, the state government insisted that the account restriction had nothing to do with financial misconduct, alleging instead that it was orchestrated to frustrate the payment of palliatives to civil servants ahead of the August 15 governorship election.

It alleged that the EFCC acted on order of the state'...