OAU Students Arrest: New EFCC Boss Bans Night Raids

Following the midnight raid during which 69 students of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife were arrested, The recently appointed chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Olanipekun Olukayode, has barred its operatives from carrying out sting operations at night.

In the early hours of Wednesday, about 69 students of the institution were arrested over alleged fraudulent internet activities at the end of the operation.

The operation reportedly lasted between about 1.40 a.m. and 4 a.m. on Wednesday.

The suspects were taken to the EFCC zonal office in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, which later became the scene of a huge protest when 200 students from the institution drove all the way from their campus in Ile-Ife to stage a protest over the arrest of their university colleagues.

Announcing the decision of the agency to ban night sting operations in a statement on Wednesday, EFCC’s spokesperson, Dele Oyewale, said “Many of the suspects duly profiled by the Command have been released”.
“In line with the newly-revised procedures on arrest and bail of suspects by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, the Executive Chairman of the Commission, Mr. Ola Olukoyede has directed that sting operations at night time be stopped in all the Commands of the EFCC,” Mr Oyewale stated.

The agency had in an earlier statement, on Wednesday, announced the arrest of 69 suspects at Oduduwa Estate, Ile-Ife, based on “actionable intelligence on their suspected involvement in fraudulent internet-related activities.”
The agency said “credible intelligence linked Oduduwa Estate with activities of suspected internet fraudsters”.