It’s pointless returning with the politicians to their grazing field in the Nigerian Senate. There is hardly anything to gain by doing so and by helping them to expand the irritating cow and graze argument that oozed out of there recently. So far, Senate President Godswill Akpabio has, thankfully, dealt well with the attempts by some senators to equate cows with humans which underlined the argument they brought to the Senate. Akpabio’s candidness on the matter notwithstanding, it is funny that Nigeria is yet to find a solution to how cows should graze in 2024! Some Nigerians are saying that there should be ranches for the cow business. Such people seek better breeding, rearing and processing of cattle and all in the value chain. But cows themselves are wondering why they cannot roam free in the towns, villages, forests and farms to keep one archaic cycle alive and active. It is indeed one repulsive cause for concern in 2024 Nigeria! But I will not go that grazing route this week… I will not join the monkey to eat grass. I will always remember my grandmother’s ‘don’t join the crooked to become crooked.’
So many other things are happening in our dear country and they are equally upsetting. One of such is the manner the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is treating the issue of cyber crime and its suspects. The thought on EFCC’s crude methods got to a crescendo with its Akure operation of last weekend. It reminded one of everything Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Nigeria Police. EFCC and its methods with the Nigerian young people rekindle the memory of SARS and how it ended. End-SARS is still fresh in our memory because it’s just about four years ago. We remember the events that led to the mass protests against SARS across Nigeria. The widespread protests which became popularly known as EndSARS didn’t end well and they didn’t earn Nigeria plaudits. Lives were lost and many Nigerians were traumatised. EndSARS grew from being pockets of small isolated complaints around the country to become a huge ball of heavy national protests. EndSARS snowballed into a national crisis of international acclaim. It was Nigerian youths reacting like a chased goat which found itself at a dead end.
What happened on Friday, June 7, 2024 in Akure, the Ondo State capital is one of such things that remind one of SARS. The Akure incident could also ignite the kind of reaction that led to EndSARS among Nigerian youths. The Commission confirmed that it went to Signature Elixir and AL-BA Royal Hotel and Suites both in the Ondo State capital and arrested 127 people. It was not the first time this commission will do this; in fact it is now a routine. It is so very common to see EFCC parade young Nigerians they had arrested often in unconventional and crude raids. The EFCC, by what it did in Akure, added to its unenviable credentials of acting like the new SARS.
In Akure, the EFCC went to what it said was a “Yahoo Party” and herded 127 people to its Ibadan regional office where they had come from. How they moved all these people, where they moved them to, and how they were kept are better imagined. A school of thought holds the opinion that the upsetting overnight Akure raid by the EFCC was “a heartwarming harvest”. To that school of thought, the nocturnal invasion and indiscriminate arrest, brutalisation and dehuminisation of people are a ‘heartwarming harvest’ because those who described it as such were not among the victims. It is the feeling of ‘may the rain drench those who went to the market because my mother didn’t go.’ So, if those suspects had been killed, the body of a dead stranger would indeed be like a log.
From the statement by the EFCC to confirm the Akure raid, the commission sounded like it was after the suspects more because they were partying than that they were suspected fraudsters. “Credible intelligence showed that the alleged party was initially scheduled for Wednesday, June 5, 2024 but was later moved to Saturday to beat security and intelligence networks of the EFCC.” It is even the 127 suspects that were giving EFCC useful information in their detention! What incriminating evidences led to their arrest in the first place? The EFCC said: “Items recovered from them include 10 exotic cars, phones, laptops, motorcycles, wristwatches and many incriminating documents.”
Many reactions to the Akure incident claimed that they did not ‘harvest’ Yahoo Boys alone, the EFCC also ‘harvested’ all manners of exotic drinks at the clubs and they were said to have confiscated personal belongings. Among such were money, ornaments like leg and hand chains and wristwatches. A statement by Elixir, one of the Akure clubs, said the laptops taken away by the EFCC were those belonging to the DJs, with the DJ inscriptions on the laptops. “Why did they take the CCTV device at Elixir away? The EFCC told the people whose mobile handsets were seized to come and retrieve them at their office in Ibadan.” Following this, there were protests in Akure on Monday. It is Akure today, who knows the next location?
The issue here is not whether the EFCC could arrest suspects or how to arrest them. Of course the commission has the powers to arrest and charge. But what are the rules of engagement within which the EFCC should operate? Does its modus operandi include beating of suspects at the point of arrest such that were seen in the videos? What with packing 127 people indiscriminately only to be questioning them while in detention? Does the commission act within the dictates of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act? A lot of things are unreasonable in some of the ways the EFCC is treating young Nigerians.
The NDLEA has been working effectively but quietly in most cases. The NDLEA is not as obnoxious as the EFCC. This is not because people are not working drugs but because any of its sting operations would be worth the name. One recent instance is the bursting of a drug ring which posed as ‘intending pilgrims’ to Saudi Arabia. When Hushpuppi was arrested, he was presented with the evidence gathered against him and he was promptly taken to court. This goes to show that, unlike what the EFCC is doing with the Nigerian youth, these anti-crime agencies would have done their homework before embarking on an operation. Compared to the number of people paraded, how many of the so-called Yahoo Boys has the EFCC properly charged and convicted from these raids? Comparatively, EFCC has failed in this regard and lies and half truths from the omission cannot cover this obvious inefficiency and indecency.
What the EFCC did in Akure and has been doing around the country, is totally condemnable. It belittles the commission, Ondo State and the country. It is rather strange that the commission will not arrest people and show them results of investigations. They arrest people and then begin to pump their belly and rummage their suspects’ heads for evidence. This is way too crude to encourage any kind of support for the commission. I think the EFCC should remember what led this country to EndSARS protests. Arrogance, impunity and high-handedness laid the foundation, it was never whether SARS was necessary or not. The EFCC is running fast along the route of SARS, and the handlers of this monster must rein it in before Nigerians react in more ways than they are doing at the moment.
A nation with 60 percent of its population under the age of 35 must be a pulsating melting pot of ideas and vivaciousness. But activities such as those of the EFCC and the likes are killing creativity and turning these young minds against the society and the government. If the EFCC was doing it right with these young Nigerians, they would not feel hounded and vengeful. These youths are digital indigenes and could bring their tech savvy heads around the problems the EFCC is trying to solve. They can use their creativity to fashion out avenues through which bad eggs could be easily fished out. By indiscriminately bursting young people in such crude manners, they would recoil and might revolt. We don’t want another EndSARS. EFCC should devise more creative means to reach their targets and cease its labelling of young Nigerians.