FOR years, Nigerians experienced unspeakable horrors at the hands of the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Nigeria Police. But it seems that SARS now has an heir, though many are failing to notice. If there is any government agency that is treading SARS’ ruinous path, it is the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Purporting to fight financial crimes, mostly advanced fee fraud, for which it takes in a few youths, the EFCC has become a potent instrument of state terror. Conducting Nazi-style raids, it turns entire streets into war zones, destroying everything in sight. It commits the most infamous brutalities, then deploys its spokesmen to prepare a salad of lies to hoodwink the public. The EFCC is now Nigeria’s equivalent of the Orwellian Thought Police.
As an investigative agency, the EFCC is needlessly showy and garrulous, courting publicity instead of intelligence gathering. The Metropolitan Police spent five years investigating James Ibori, and arrested him without noise. But everyone knows who the EFCC is investigating or arresting at any moment. A transparently political outfit, it rejoiced after Governor Ayo Fayose and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lost election in July 2018. It tweeted: “The parri (party) is over; the cloak of immunity torn apart and the staff broken. Ekiti Integrated Poultry Project/Biological concepts Limited N1.3bn fraud case file dusted off the shelves. See you soon.”
This week, EFCC agents invaded Conference Hotel, Abeokuta, Ogun State, a facility owned by a former governor, turning the peaceful atmosphere into a war zone. Lodgers fearing for dear life ran in different directions as gunshots rent the air. Following the raid, the public relations officers of both the Ibadan and Lagos offices denied knowledge of the invasion. But the hotel stuck to its guns, saying: “Some unknown gunmen believed to be acting at the behest of one of the anti-graft agencies stormed the premises of the hotel facility in Abeokuta in search of an unknown ‘yahoo boy’. Unnecessary shots were fired and our innocent guests were scared. Thankfully, our various security agencies were able to restore law and order and no life was lost.” Following this press release, TheWill, an online news agency, crafted this fabulous headline: “Gunmen, not EFCC, invaded our facility—Conference Hotels mgt.” But a release by the EFCC head of media, Wilson Uwajuren, put paid to the falsehood. Uwajuren claimed that the Peer Youth Award held at the hotel was meant to reward high-level internet fraudsters, 60 of whom his agency had arrested.
Said a Twitter user: “Park Inn by Radisson and all other high-end hotels have been raided recently. Abeokuta’s hospitality sector will tank.” Another wrote: “This is the video of EFCC agents’ invasion of Gbenga Daniel’s Conference Hotel last night. This is horrifying and unpleasant.” Of course, as a spoiler of the feast, what the Yoruba call Baseje, EFCC does not care if businesses and livelihoods are ruined: corruption must be fought by turning the country into a police state.
In September, EFCC goons raided three hotels in Abeokuta and arrested 56 lodgers in a “commando-like manner.” Broken doors, shattered plates and damaged furniture littered the premises. A worker who pointed at the damaged doors while speaking with Premium Times noted that they were broken by the operatives. Indeed, a lady who identified herself as Romoke Adisa lamented: “It was when they put off the generator that we discovered that there was a problem. It was the cry of someone that we heard. Like six phones were taken in our room. Those people are acting thieves, bros. They enter different residences in the midnight (sic).” Pray, how can hoteliers’ livelihoods be destroyed in this brazen manner in a democracy? How can an anti-graft agency have power to switch off generators in hotels and seize master keys? Is this what the democracy that people shed their blood for has become? Said a worker at one of the hotels: “If they had told us, we would have shown them (where the suspects lodged) and other guests would not have known. They opened all the rooms and some guests were naked. They were scared.”
Acting like depraved dogs, EFCC goons invade hotels and homes at odd hours, dragging people out of their rooms in various states of undress. Indeed, what provoked this piece is the story of innocent couples dragged out of their rooms during the September raid by EFCC. Think about it: in this terrible economy of Buhari’s, you paid through the nose for a room, only to be woken up by terrific noise at midnight as EFCC agents broke the door and barged into your privacy, beating you and your spouse with horsewhips, dragging you out of your room into the lobby, then eventually making away with some lodgers at the hotel without offering you any apology. It is a crime against God Almighty. In February this year, EFCC invasion claimed a life at 1004 Housing Estate, Victoria Island, Lagos. The terrified victim jumped to his death, only for the agency to claim he was not its target. But would the man have died if it had conducted its affairs in a civilised manner? In July, a Nollywood actress gave harrowing details of how EFCC goons broke into her hotel room in Lagos at 3am, asking for the whereabouts of her non-existent partner. Recently, EFFC goons barged into the Lagos residence of an ex-Big Brother Naija housemate at around 4.45am, messing up the whole place.
An Abia-based journalist, Norah Okafor, has in fact dragged the agency before the Abia State High Court over an alleged invasion of her apartment on Ehimiri Housing Estate in Umuahia. The story is that on September 23, the operatives jumped over the fence around 2am to gain access into her compound, breaking the gate with an axe. EFCC goons seem to love women’s nakedness. The following is from the website of Human Rights Watch: “Those interviewed …said they were taken to EFCC offices on Awolowo Road or Okotie Street where they were horsewhipped or beaten with cable wire and forced to sign statements confessing to obtaining money through false pretences. All four were held for prolonged periods, ranging from between two and nine months and without legal representation… A twenty-six-year-old man in Lagos described how, in EFCC custody and on the orders of a senior police officer seconded to the commission, he was tortured so badly he had to be admitted to hospital.”
So sad.
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