EFCC : A CHILD OF ILLEGITIMACY

By Ekele Stephen 

 GESTAPO is a German acronym for the German Secret State Police in Nazi Germany known for its terrorist methods of operation. Going secretly at night under the cover of darkness against any perceived enemies or suspects.

 The EFCC over the years has however earned the reputation of the GESTAPO following their habitual  nocturnal raids of homes and workplaces of citizens and incessant flagrant disregard for rule of law and constituted authorities of the Nigeria. Unfortunately for EFCC, Nigeria is not Nazi Germany and definitely not a banana republic.

Another perfect way to describe the crude and ancient EFCC's  modus operandi is that of the dance to the popular K- pop song by the South Korean artist, PSY released July 15th 2012 called " GANGNAM STYLE " which millions of Nigerians from the south west extraction nicknamed " GRA- GRA STYLE" judging from the way the artist and his crew danced in a coordinated , planned but wild and gangsta manner . 

When asked about the meaning of the song Gangnam style, he said " Gangnam is a Territory in Seoul Korea. I described it as noble at the daytime and going crazy at the night time" which perfectly described the actions of the EFCC behaving noble at day time but going ballistic, gun blazing and violent at odd hours.

In 2016, the EFCC in their usual gestapo manner stormed the home of justice Ofili Ajumogobia , a judge of a Federal High Court at 5:00am in the morning under the guise of investigation and prosecution of a case of alleged money laundering and breach of public trust.

 Eventually, after such a public show of shame and National embarrassment by the EFCC, the cases were struck out by a high court judge of Lagos state in 2019 and she was reinstated as a Federal High Court judge on the 1st of December, 2022. An Abysmal performance , worst methodology and waste of resources by the agency . 

On the 29th of October 2021, the EFCC again stormed the maitama home of a supreme court judge, Justice Mary Odili in Abuja. The operatives accompanied by policemen broke into her home in search of her husband who was a Governor in Rivers state between 1999 and 2007 after the latter had obtained perpetual injunction from a court of competent jurisdiction banning EFCC from investigating him and got another fresh injunction in 2020 against any impending probe. The EFCC flagrantly disobeyed and disregarded the laws of the country .

 It's also public knowledge  that operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission stormed the Kogi Government Lodge, Asokoro in an attempt to forcefully arrest former Governor Yahaya Bello. They  shot sporadically in an attempt to forcefully arrest former Governor Yahaya Bello when it was  reported earlier that the former Governor went to the EFCC Office voluntarily earlier that day but the Commission told him to leave and come at a later date, only to mount a Gestapo-like attack on the Kogi State Government facility in Asokoro.

Many Notable Nigerians had condemned the methodology of the EFCC . The former President, Nigerian Bar Association, Dr Olisa Agbakoba once said the EFCC shouldn't have been in existence, challenging it's legality and the alien methods of operation. 

Mr Dele Momodu also stated on his Instagram live show that " EFCC MISFIRED" in their actions against Yahaya Bello and the human right lawyer , Dr Deji Adeyanju called on EFCC to adopt a better approach in it's operations describing their approach as " *commando style investigation and arrest"* and flagrant disregard for citizens human right citing frequent midnight raids of hotels, homes and places of work of citizens who are suspects . 

More worrisome is the " Naming and Shaming" of the citizens and the accompanying media trials which they have unjustly incorporated and normalized due to the Nigerians distrust of the justice system.  The agency has adopted the " *bypass the courts* " strategy and taking their cases directly to the *courts of public opinions* , a mild form jungle justice taking advantage of the alternative justice system of medial trial because of the citizens have lost faith in the nation's judiciary. 

This " GANGNAM (GRA-GRA) STYLE " now embraced by the EFCC has seen the officers breaking unlawfully into homes at midnights, subjecting suspects to trauma and completely denying citizens their rights and freedom as enshrined in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria hiding under the guise of investigating financial crimes. 

The truth is that a system can be very unobtrusive but effective like we have in my many matured democracies in the world but since the EFCC had continued this gangsta dance and gra-gra approach, one is constrained to join all well meaning Nigerians to call on  President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to commence the process of scrapping the EFCC to save the country of these disgrace brought upon her by the agency. 

Nigeria is not a Nazi Germany and obviously not a Banana Republic.......Enough of the Opan Gangnam style dance of the EFCC ....