The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC is saddled with
investigating financial crimes in Nigeria. However, this report detailed
how their aggressive mode of operation has put countless citizens at
the receiving end of harassment, assaults and arbitrary arrests.
It
was around 5 am. Agabi, 31, and his wife, three months pregnant, were
deep asleep, lulled by the early morning breeze in Kwalkwalawa, Sokoto
State when a loud commotion from outside their apartment jolted them.
They had recently discovered they were expecting twins, and their hearts
were filled with excitement. But that morning's travail would soon rob
them of their joy.
The
operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on a
mission to apprehend suspected internet fraudsters raided their estate
of 20 flats on August 25, 2023. Many of the residents, mostly students,
were arrested that morning.
A
few days earlier, the couple had gone to the hospital for a routine
checkup and received the good news that they were expecting twins. Agabi
began preparing for fatherhood and started buying baby supplies. Little
did they know that a devastating raid that would tear their dreams
apart was looming.
"It
was still dark outside when the door was forced open," Agabi recalled.
He sat up and was barely awake when an EFCC agent barged into their
bedroom which had his wife lying naked on the bed. Despite his confusion
as to what warranted the presence of the agent in his bedroom, Agabi
bore the humiliation, requesting the agent to leave whilst they got
dressed. However, the agent barked orders at him to dress quickly and
follow them to their office.
They
confiscated his laptop and phone and dragged him into their vehicle.
Along the way, one of them struck him from behind, bidding him to
quicken his pace. They brought him to their Hilux and squeezed him into
the midst of other suspects before they zoomed away. Meanwhile, they
left his wife behind, alone in the apartment, to suffer the physical and
emotional trauma of the drama that unfolded before her eyes.
Agabi
At
the state EFCC facility, the agents subjected Agabi and his neighbours
from the estate, whom they also arrested, to hours of interrogation.
Despite finding nothing incriminating about him, they treated Agabi with
hostility and went as far as threatening to beat him.
“When
we got to their state headquarters, the director came out, started
recording everyone’s face, and asked for our names. I told him not to
publicize my name or face because no investigation had been carried out,
and I had nothing to hide,” Agabi said.
He
recalled that the director assured him that they would not make the
footage public, but, days later, he would find his name in a list on the
EFCC’s website, which he considered a damage to his reputation.
“I
remember one of them asking me to sit on the floor in a corner. I asked
him, ‘Am I a criminal? Why should I sit on the floor?’, and he
threatened to slap and beat me up. I told him he had no right to touch
me, especially after barging into my house and traumatizing my pregnant
wife. I stood my ground, and eventually, he let me be.”
By
the time they released him in the evening after their investigations
revealed that he was indeed innocent, he would find that they had taken
more than just his freedom and right to privacy and personal dignity.
His wife, whom the events of the day distressed greatly, began feeling
unwell and, two days later, started bleeding.
The
couple rushed to a specialist hospital in the dead of night, only to
get the devastating news that she had lost the pregnancy that brought
them so much joy. The trauma of the raid had taken a toll on her, and
she lost their twins. For Agabi, the cause was clear. The stress and
fear that the EFCC raid inflicted on his household was responsible for
his wife's miscarriage.
This
case is not an isolated incident. Over the years, allegations of human
rights violations have sprung from different quarters, relating to the
operations of the EFCC, especially in their pursuit of suspected
internet fraudsters. Agabi and his wife are just one of many families
caught in the crossfire of the crude tactics these operatives deploy in
the line of their duty.
The EFCC was established
in 2003 to investigate financial crimes, such as advanced fee fraud
(419) and money laundering. However, in recent times, Nigerians have
seen this agency develop a predilection for hunting internet fraudsters
in a manner that has put innocent citizens at the receiving end of their
harassment, assault and arbitrary arrests.
Expectedly,
citizens have expressed their frustration over it through a series of
protests aimed at demanding reforms in the agency. From artistes like Skales and Shallipopi, to former reality show stars, Dorathy and Leo Dasilva, even celebrities have had their share of this plague of intrusion and harassment at the hands of the EFCC.
Legal
and public affairs experts posit that the tactics of the agency are now
becoming more akin to the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of
the Nigerian Police Force, a notorious unit that employed inhuman means
to conduct their duties, a practice that claimed countless lives and
ultimately triggered a nationwide #EndSARS anti-police brutality protest
in 2020.
Tales of chaos, intimidation and harassment
Norah
Okafor, an Abia State journalist, was asleep after a strenuous day when
a loud knock from her gate jolted her around 2: am. Her brother, who
had come to spend holiday with her, rushed to her room to alert her that
there were armed robbers at the gate. They had not the slightest
inkling that the invaders were operatives of the EFCC.
When
they did not respond, about 25 armed men, by her count, clad in black
and spotting masks, breached the electric fence surrounding her
apartment, leaping into the premises. After gaining entry, they smashed
through the door, forcing their way into her apartment. She was in
bewilderment and barely had clothes on when the officers stormed her
room
Norah Okafor
“About
seven of them entered my room. I was naked, and they demanded I put on
my clothes. They shouted, ‘Lie down! Face down! Where is your phone?’
They damaged my doors and slapped my brother," she told The ICIR,
They
seized her phone, laptop and car keys before forcing her into the
premises where she had parked her car the previous day. They proceeded
to harass her neighbours and destroy things in the compound, she
alleged.
“It
was more than one hour, and I was wondering who they were. When we came
downstairs and they were to take my car and my brother, I began to ask
them, ‘Who are you and why do you want to take my car?’ That was when I
saw some of their men in EFCC vests. I asked why they didn’t identify
themselves to do their job professionally”.
Amidst
the turmoil, Norah attempted to retrieve her identity card from her
car, and it accidentally dropped on the ground. This was when the agents
saw “PRESS” on it and realised they were at the wrong place. The
officers hastily returned everything they had taken and drove off,
leaving her to bear the damage.
When
Okafor went public with her story the next day, the EFCC, in their
usual style, denied the allegation. “They said I just wanted to trend
for no justifiable reason,” she recalled.
This is similar to the response of the commission to the accusations of an actor, Helen Duru, who shared a video of herself
in her blood and with a fractured skull, alleging that the operatives
of the commission broke into her house and took turns to bash her until
she bled profusely. The commission responded by saying the actress was merely seeking
Norah Okafor's door broken by EFCC operatives
However,
Okafor subsequently sued the agency for violating her fundamental human
rights and demanded the sum of N20 million for exemplary and general
damages. She also sought a declaration from the court that the invasion
by the masked operatives while she was naked and asleep was unlawful,
unconstitutional and an infringement on her rights to the dignity of the
human person.
Ultimately,
the Federal High Court sitting in Umuahia, Abia State, ordered the
commission to pay her 3.5 million Naira and tender a public apology in
two national dailies. However, two years after the ruling, the agency
neither obeyed the court order nor appealed the judgement.
Like
Okafor, many Nigerians, including students, have fallen victim to the
crude modus operandi of the EFCC. However, all but a few nursed their
woes without involving the judiciary.
One
of them is *Chukwudi who once lived at a 36-person resident behind the
University of Ibadan. He was in Oyo, caring for his sick mother, when
his neighbour called around 4: a.m. to report that people were breaking
into their rooms. He was glad that, before he left his room, he had
already secured his laptop in a drawer and locked the door to his room.
However,
he tried to reach the neighbour afterwards but couldn’t get through to
him. By 6:30 am, another housemate informed him that they had taken away
seven housemates after breaking into all the rooms, except one. One of
the housemates, whose brother worked as a security in an EFCC facility,
confirmed that the agency was responsible.
[caption id="attachment_237608" align="aligncenter" width="2048"]
Chukwudi's room disrupted by EFCC officials
When
Chukwudi eventually arrived, he found that they had ransacked his room.
His MacBook Pro, PlayStation 4, Bluetooth speaker, international
passport, University of Ibadan (UI) certificate, important documents,
and a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge that held his crypto assets, were missing.
His
parents sent a lawyer to the EFCC office. There, the officers accused
him of escaping and searched his phone for evidence, but they found
nothing. Whilst they were able to recover some of his items, his MacBook
and Samsung phone remained missing. The agents claimed someone else
might have taken them after the raid, but Chukwudi insisted that they
left his room unsecured. The head of operations threatened him with
detention, but he continued to push for his missing laptop.
He
continued to vent his frustration via tweets about his situation,
creating an unsavoury situation for the EFCC and they soon realised that
he was not going to let them be. His story gained traction online,
prompting them, assumedly, to intensify their efforts to find his
belongings. Four days later, they claimed to have found his MacBook in
their raid bus, a story that seemed unbelievable, considering the bus
had been used in other operations.
Chukwudi
recovered his belongings except the Samsung phone and, although he
considered suing, he chose not to pursue it further. Some of his
housemates endured even worse outcomes. For instance, one of his
roommates, a woman, was beaten during the invasion. Though he managed to
retrieve his laptop and other items, the experience scarred him and
gave him a glimpse of the many unethical practices of the anti-graft
commission.
*Chukwudi
During
his frequent visits to the EFCC office, Chukwudi witnessed how the
agents would seize suspects' items but not list everything, leaving
victims helpless. He also observed the brutality of the operatives, who
regularly harassed and beat people, whether they were guilty or not.
New EFCC administration, same issue
When
Ola Olukoyede took over from Abdulrasheed Bawa, under whose
administration allegations of human rights abuses abound, many Nigerians
thought the agency’s approach was going to change when its leadership
changed hands in June 2023, but cases of arbitrary arrests, assaults and
harassment have rather continued to persist.
Apart
from breaking into people’s homes, their major targets are tertiary
institutions and hotels, sparking reactions from student union
organisations and hotel owners across the country.
EFCC chairman, Ola Olukayode
One
night in November 2023, EFCC operatives invaded the Obafemi Awolowo
University (OAU) Students’ off-campus hostel at the Oduduwa Estate. They
went on to apprehend no fewer than 69 students, ferrying them to
detention at their Ibadan zonal office.
Hafiz, a young and ambitious software engineer, wouldn't forget the day in a hurry.
"I was woken by several shouts and loud banging noises that I immediately thought to be gunshots," he narrated.
Living
in a students' hostel, Hafiz initially thought they were under attack
by armed robbers. Peeping through the slits in his door, he saw his
fellow tenants lying face down, surrounded by armed men. Fearing for his
life, he tried to escape by crawling into the ceiling but soon changed
his mind when he suffered a sudden electric shock.
The
gunmen stormed his room, dragged him downstairs, and ordered him and
the others to lay face down on the cold floor, beating them
relentlessly. It wasn't until he noticed the jackets of his captors that
he realised they were not criminals, but agents of the EFCC.
"I had no idea why I was being taken away. I'm not a fraudster. I've never been involved in cybercrime,” he cried.
Despite
his innocence, they sandwiched Hafiz into a vehicle with other
students, forcing them to sit on the laps of one another as the bus
brimmed with the addition of suspects from neighbouring hostels.
"They warned us not to look up or we would be shot," he looked back at the terrifying moment.
58 students arrested by EFCC operatives at the OAU
According
to the commission, they arrested the students, following actionable
intelligence on their suspected involvement in fraudulent
internet-related activities, and published their names and photographs
in media reports as internet fraudsters. They eventually released 58 of these students,
meaning that the evidence found on them was not strong enough for
conviction. Expectedly, the mass arrest sparked an outrage, raising many
disturbing questions.
Following
the release of the arrested students, many of the parents demanded an
apology from the EFCC for the unlawful clampdown on their wards. They
also sought the immediate clearance of their children’s names, pictures
and biometrics from the anti-graft body's records. However, the
commission did not respond to the clamour that their actions could
jeopardize the future of these young ones or address the concerns.
Violating its own directive
Following the outrage that trailed the arrest of the OAU students, the commission’s
chairman, Ola Olukoyede, directed its operatives to stop sting
operations at night. However, this didn’t stop the officers of the
agency from continued raids of businesses and homes or the harassment
and arbitrary arrest of young Nigerians.
In
defiance of its own directive, the operatives stormed various students’
residences at the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA) in a
midnight raid and arrested 14 students around 3: am. The Student Union
of the institution accused them of destroying property, maltreating and
inflicting injuries on some other students.
*Christiana,
a student of the University, was trying to rest in her hostel after a
long spell in the lecture halls. Suddenly, heavy beams of flashlights
pierced through the darkness in her room, and she fell out of her sleep.
By the time her vision adjusted to the change in lighting, she saw
three men standing. Her thought was that they were thieves or
kidnappers.
"I
woke up with flashlights on me," she recalled with a shaky voice. "I
wasn’t wearing anything. I saw three men, and I was just begging them
not to touch me. I could not even think they were law enforcement
agents."
Amid
fear, Christiana found herself pleading with the strangers, hoping they
wouldn’t harm her. She still couldn't connect the dots when they
started asking for her name, her department and whether she lived there.
Her words came out in stammers, uncertain of her fate until one of them
turned and she saw "EFCC" behind his vest.
"He
told me to put on my clothes and take them to the rooms of the guys
with cars," she explained. "I told them I didn’t know any of the guys
with cars. I was just staying there."
As
she put on her clothes with her nerves around the place, one of the
agents remained in the room and watched her. She had no moment of
privacy or any sense of safety. When she was ready, he led her outside
and continued questioning her about who lived there, but she had no
answers. The raid soon spiralled into chaos, with agents knocking down
doors.
They seized phones and personal belongings, threatening anyone who resisted or asked questions.
"Some
of them corked their guns, saying that if those guys tried to run, they
were going to shoot them," Christiana added, her voice still laced with
the fear she felt that night.
Later,
EFCC operatives, heavily armed, moved to Shauz club and Signatures
club, which frequently hosted night parties and events in the state, in a
white space bus.
Eyewitnesses
observed that the officers used excessive force during the operation,
entering various clubs and lounges, tear-gassing patrons, and
arbitrarily arresting people. The raid resulted in numerous injuries as
they fired tear gas canisters inside one of the clubs.
In
one of them, a bride, groom and his friends, who were at the club for a
pre-wedding celebration, found themselves on the anti-graft operatives’
web, facing indiscriminate profiling as internet fraudsters.
After
the raid, in which the commission arbitrarily arrested 127 people, they
claimed that the suspects were attending a gathering related to
internet fraud. Photographs from victims of the raids showed the bodies
of women at the club who were at the mercy of the masked officers’ rage.
These
relentless raids would later stir up a youth protest on illegal raids
without proof of warrant or authorisation as hotel owners. Angry youths
and civil society groups in Akure branded the raids barbaric and
unlawful.
The
commission dismissed the videos and pictures exposing how they
assaulted, harassed and destroyed properties at nightclubs as
stage-managed. However, a subsequent operation at another hotel in Lagos
State validated the widespread allegations of human rights violation
against its operatives as they fired shots, injured customers and
arrested guests. Hotel staff alleged that the officials broke into
rooms, assaulted guests and workers, and took away ATM cards, money and
phones.
The
agency would have discredited the claims, as usual, but CCTV footage
capturing about five EFCC operatives in tactical vests breaking into a
room through the door was enough evidence. As soon as they entered the
room, one of them repeatedly hit a staff member they met inside.
CCTV showed an EFCC officer assaulting a woman
The
footage showed that the woman did not struggle with the operatives and
how they led her out after the short scene in the room. Two of them
could be seen inspecting drawers in the room with one caught taking some
items before leaving the room. Caught red-handed, the commission
released a statement ordering the arrest of the officers for further
investigation.
Regrettably,
despite clear evidence, the agency has not meted any sanctions on the
officers involved in this assault and the statement did not disclose the
names or any other details regarding them.
The call for reforms
In
July, many young Nigerians announced the plan to embark on a protest
tagged #ReformEFCC to express their frustration over the continuous and
alarming human rights violations by the operatives of the commission and
demand for reforms.
The
protesters outlined six key demands, which include ending
indiscriminate arrests and invasion of homes, property destruction
during sting operations and, likewise, profiling, assaulting and
manhandling of young Nigerians. However, subtle intimidation and threats
from the EFCC and other security agencies suppressed the plans.
Meanwhile,
this is not the first time Nigerian youths have protested over
allegations of human rights violations by the operatives of the EFCC. In
October 2022, some youths in Delta State protested against them, which claimed three lives.
Similarly, some students of the Federal Polytechnic Ede in Osun State, protested their colleagues' arrest after the commission's operatives raided the school. Twenty-seven of these students were later expelled for participating in the protest.
Some
citizens believe that the agency has narrowed its mandate to merely
hunting petty thieves while giving preferential treatment to corrupt
politicians who face allegations of looting public funds.
Data obtained by The ICIR
shows that the EFCC has faced significant challenges in securing
successful outcomes in the last five years, despite its aggressive
tactics. Out of 58,165 cases investigated, primarily through raids and
sting operations, the agency was only able to secure 10,935 convictions.
This
represents approximately 19 per cent of the entire cases probed by the
commission in that period. This implies that the remaining 81 per cent
of cases investigated did not lead to convictions. Concerns have been
raised about the effectiveness of the EFCC’s methods, particularly given
the rife allegations of human rights violations reported during their
investigations.
Similarly,
there has been a decrease in the ratio of cases investigated to cases
filed in court over the years. Of the 58,165 cases investigated, only
16,115 cases were filed in court between 2019 and 2023. This means that
the agency was unable to build a strong case against about 72 per cent
of the individuals it investigated, oftentimes through raids, arbitrary
arrests and inhuman interrogations.
Also,
the total number of convictions secured by the agency has shown an
increase since 2019, the overall effectiveness when compared to the
number of cases investigated, remains concerning. For instance, in 2019,
the commission was able to secure only 14 per cent of convictions from
the cases it investigated while the conviction rate in 2023 is only 15.21 per cent
Violating extant laws
Interviews
with several victims showed that the operatives of the EFCC are
violating various national and international laws in their operations.
Independent accounts from victims show that operatives met out beatings
before concluding the investigation, violating the Torture Act 2017. The
Act seeks to ensure that the rights of all persons, including suspects
and detainees, are respected at all times. It also stipulates that, no
person placed under investigation or held in the custody of any person
in authority shall be subjected to physical harm, force, violence,
threat or intimidation or any act that impairs their free will.
Chapter
4, Section 34 of the Nigerian Constitution also guarantees the right to
human dignity and prohibits all forms of torture, inhuman or degrading
treatment and slavery or servitude. This section ensures that every
Nigerian is protected from actions or conditions that violate their
dignity as humans.
In
addition, the EFCC often arrests individuals arbitrarily and detains
them for days whilst attempting to extract evidence for prosecution,
rather than conducting a proper investigation before making arrests.
This is against section 35 of the constitution, which states that an
agency cannot detain anyone for more than 48 hours (or 24 hours, in most
cases) without charging them in court. This is also a diversion from
similar agencies across the world, where strong intelligence is gathered
for crimes before arrests follow.
Legal experts interviewed by The ICIR
stressed the need for the EFCC to adopt rigorous investigative methods
and ensure diligent prosecutions and convictions, without allowing its
operatives to violate the law whilst executing their mandate.
“EFCC
now operates like armed robbers. They break down doors, search without a
warrant, intrude on people's privacy and do all sorts of stuff that
armed robbers do. Only that theirs is official. EFCC is now the new
SARS,” was the deduction of Ridwan Oke, a Lagos-based human rights
lawyer who played an important role in the release of several detainees during the October 2020 #EndSARS protests.
Oke
stressed that Nigerian laws are explicit about how security agencies
should operate, without violating fundamental human rights, including
the right to human dignity as outlined in the constitution.
“What
I'm seeing from the EFCC is not much different from how the police have
been operating, which we've always criticized,” he said, adding that,
“If you want to conduct an arrest, even if you have an arrest warrant,
you must do so with thorough respect for the law. That means you don't
just break into residences.”
He
condemned the EFCC’s practice of conducting raids at night without
proper warrants, stating that such actions should typically only be
carried out during the daytime, which could range from 6: am to 6: pm
unless the individual in question has been evading arrest for a
prolonged period.
Ridwan Oke
“However,
the EFCC breaks into apartments, beats people up and, sometimes, even
steals from them. This is totally against our laws. We have rights to
human dignity, rights to privacy, and several other rights that are
enshrined and protected. So, it is unacceptable if the EFCC is violating
these rights. The level of investigation they claim to be conducting
doesn't matter. The EFCC often disregards these legal protections in
some of their activities.”
On
his part, Vahyala Kwaga, a lawyer and Senior Research & Policy
Analyst at BudgIT noted that EFCC’s tactics often prioritise performance
over justice. He explained that the criminal justice system involves a
comprehensive value chain, starting from investigation and arrest, and
culminating in prosecution, adjudication and sentencing. He, however,
observed that the agency often focuses only on arrests as yardsticks for
its performance, which, as he believes, is their motivation for rushing
to publish names of suspects without concluding necessary
investigations.
Vahyala Kwaga
“The
EFCC [and other investigatory agencies] is meant to be guided by their
establishing law and court orders. While the president appoints their
heads and the legislature confirms them, they are bound by the decisions
of courts on procedure and independent of the executive. This is in
line with international best practice,” he said.
Kwaga
implored the EFCC to enhance its compliance with human rights laws,
particularly in cybercrime raids. He advised that the agency should make
public disclosures of its investigative methods and ensure that its
officers ask critical legal questions before conducting raids, such as
whether the actions are lawful, necessary and proportionate.
Additionally,
he highlighted the importance of maintaining detailed arrest records,
promptly informing detainees’ families, and providing continuous
training to EFCC officers on proper arrest procedures and human rights
protections.
Illegal detention and extortion
It
took several days to get *Adejobi, to agree to an interview. The
25-year-old, who is amongst the students arrested on February 14, when
armed EFCC officers conducted a midnight raid at a student residence in
Akure, described the experience as one he wouldn't wish to encounter
again. His voice quivered as he recounted his ordeal, showing possible
signs of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Around
2: am, on the fateful day, the officers stormed his hostel, broke down
doors and seized personal belongings, including phones, PCs and even a
motorcycle. Adejobi’s singular offence was owning a Samsung phone and a
laptop.
“They
took us to the back of the building and said we should open our phones
and bags. They started checking everything. Based on their intuition,
they decide on who would be going with them or not. If you were using
something like Tecno, they would ask you to go but if you were using
something like iPhone or Samsung, they would ask you to follow them. It
seemed like they were deciding who to take with them based on the
gadgets they possessed,” he recalled.
The
raid was part of a larger operation, with the officers moving from one
location to another, hunting for students who matched their profile of
internet fraudsters based solely on their possessions. After
confiscating their devices, they whisked Adejobi and others off to Benin
City, where they arrived after hours of waiting for other buses
conveying students, they arrested from other schools to join them.
The
officers ordered the students to sit on the floor, ransacking their
bags and asking them how they managed to get their gadgets and what they
used them for. Adejobi, who is a programmer, had to explain his work to
clear any suspicion of criminal activity. Despite cooperating, they
held them for almost two days. Some of them were tortured by the
operatives of the agency. After further questioning and verifying their
information, they released some of them, but without providing them any
assistance to return to Akure, where they arrested them.
Another
victim, *Folohunsho said he was detained by the commission for 10 days
without being charged after the daughter of an Assistant Inspector
General (AIG) in the Nigerian Police Force, reported him to the EFCC
over alleged fraud.
“I was held without any real evidence, just an accusation. Yet, they kept my phone and laptop for nearly two months.”
Folohunsho's
time in custody was a nightmare. In his words, "The officers were
brutal. We were served meals three times a day, but the food often had
flies and maggots. When we complained about. They treated us like
animals. I saw men beaten with pipes and belts,” he recalled, saying was
just a fraction of his harrowing experience.
“I
had to transfer ₦200,000 to one of the officers to get my phone and
laptop back. My parents told me they paid between ₦350,000 and ₦400,000
for my release. One of my friend's father had to part with N10 million
to get us out. It was extortion, plain and simple,” he concluded.
EFCC reacts
The
EFCC spokesperson, Dele Oyewale, claimed that the agency's operatives
adhere to extant laws in carrying out their operations.
“EFCC
is a law enforcement agency. There is a standard practice worldwide
regarding arrests. We typically use search and arrest warrants. No case
has ever been proven where we just barge into people’s premises.
“Our
chairman is a lawyer with a deep respect for the rule of law. We follow
our standard operating procedure (SOP) and act within legal boundaries.
We don’t break into people’s homes; we are neither bandits nor
terrorists.”
He
asserted that most of the people arrested during their operation were
convicted, adding that, “If there were no legal grounds for their
arrests, they wouldn’t have been convicted. We are working in the best
interest of the commission. People need to balance their allegations
with an understanding of the law.
“These
allegations are false. When you want to hang a dog, you give it a bad
name. In the EFCC, we have an internal mechanism to address any actions
that do not align with our SOP. There is no culture of impunity. We have
checks and balances, and our operatives know this. If there is any
impropriety, it is dealt with internally.”
On
continued practice of night-time raids despite the chairman’s
directive, Oyewale said, “What our chairman stated was that we would no
longer conduct raids. We are not armed robbers or bandits. Sting
operations are lawful and conform to international best practices. What
people refer to as raids are sting operations.
“Sting
operations are lawful. You know, they are allowed and conform to
international best practices. What our chairman said at that time was
that there would be no raid. This thing that we initially raid, that
people will just break into people's houses, break their doors; don't do
that. We do sting operations.”
Note: Names with asterisks have been changed to protect the identities of the victims
This
story was produced with support from the Tiger Eye Foundation under the
On Nigeria programme, funded by the MacArthur Foundation
