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The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) will, on Friday, arraign 23 suspected internet fraudsters arrested during a sting operation at a hotel within the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) complex in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
The arraignment, scheduled to take place before Justice D. Dipeolu of the Federal High Court in Ikoyi, Lagos, will be the first batch of prosecutions from the August 10 raid in which 93 people were taken into custody on allegations of impersonation, identity theft and other cybercrime offences.
Earlier, the OOPL management had convened a press conference in Abeokuta, Ogun State to condemn the EFCC operation, which it described as a “Gestapo-like” incursion on its premises.
Managing director, Vitalis Ortese, had told journalists that more than 50 armed EFCC operatives stormed the Green Legacy Resort, a hospitality facility inside the OOPL complex, at about 2:00 a.m. on Sunday, August 10, firing shots into the air and causing panic among guests.
He said staff and the library’s security personnel demanded to see a warrant but were told by operatives, “We are doing our job.”
The raid, which targeted a pool party hosted at the resort, left some guests injured and property damaged, Mr Ortese said, warning that the action risked misleading the public into thinking the heritage site was complicit in criminal activity.
“The OOPL is a national heritage site, not a haven for criminals,” he said, insisting that the institution’s reputation had been unfairly tarnished.
The library demanded a public apology, an investigation, and N3.5 billion in compensation, N1 billion for bodily injuries and property damage to over 100 affected individuals and N2.5 billion for reputational and commercial losses.
It gave the EFCC seven days to comply or face legal action, also disclosing that ballistic experts had been invited to examine 12 AK-47 pellets allegedly recovered from the scene.
However, in a Thursday night statement by EFCC’s spokesperson, Dele Oyewale, the anti-graft agency defended the raid as the “product of weeks of intelligence gathering and profiling of the suspects’ online activities.”
The commission alleged that the pool party was initially planned for two other venues but was relocated to the OOPL hotel “ostensibly to escape possible arrest by operatives of the EFCC.”
According to Mr Oyewale, “The planners got wind of the commission’s intelligence and scampered to the OOPL expecting a sort of covering from arrest. The former president’s facility was not a target of EFCC’s operations. The suspects were the target and have confessed to their involvement in internet crimes.”
The agency said 18 vehicles, laptops, mobile devices and other exhibits were recovered from the suspects during the operation, stressing that the OOPL itself was not under investigation. It added that the remaining 70 suspects would be arraigned in batches over the coming weeks, with prosecutors expected to present digital evidence, bank records and witness testimonies in court.
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Source: GazetteNGR | Read Full Story…
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