Nigerians, once again, witnessed another show of shame on Friday when some operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission briefly stormed the headquarters of the Standard Chartered Bank in Lagos in a Gestapo style in an attempt to arrest an official of the bank.
The action came only a month after Standard Chartered Bank and three other banks were asked to return to the Central Bank of Nigeria the sum of $8.1billion the apex bank alleged the banks assisted the telecommunication giant, MTN, to illegally repatriate from the country.
There is no doubt that the action is capable of sending the wrong signal to investors and heat up the financial services sector, especially at a quite challenging time like this for the banks.
The raid also came only a fortnight after the Abuja residence of elder statesman and Ijaw national leader, Chief Edwin Clark, was raided by some policemen
“We are clear there was no basis for this entry, and the law enforcement officials left the building shortly afterwards,” Standard Chartered Bank however said in a statement .
The raid also came only a fortnight after the Abuja residence of elder statesman and Ijaw national leader, Chief Edwin Clark, was raided by some policemen, who claimed they were acting on an intelligent report that some arms and ammunition were recently moved into the house.
The EFCC was to later distance itself from the raid on the Lagos headquarters of Standard Chartered Bank just as the Police did in the case of the Abuja residence of Edwin Clark, describing the officers who carried out the Lagos raid as “errant
officers.”
And in a face-saving move to control the damage done to its corporate image by the embarrassing action of the so-called “errant officers”, EFCC, in a statement by its spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, said: “The raid by operatives purportedly wearing the jackets of the Commission might have been the handiwork of errant officers who acted without authorisation.”
The anti-graft body also maintained that “The action is in flagrant violation of the standard operation procedures of the Commission,” adding that “it is not the style of the EFCC to openly raid the offices of banks and other financial institutions.”
According to the statement, “Officials of such institutions, who are wanted by the commission, are usually invited for questioning after discreet investigation. Over the years, banks have been cooperative in releasing their officers to the Commission for questioning.”
It however promised that “The Commission will investigate the circumstances leading to this illegal raid by errant officers and those found culpable would be subjected to the internal disciplinary mechanism of the Commission.”
The EFCC also reassured Nigerians that it is “an agency which adheres strictly to the rule of law and will, as much as possible, avoid draconian measures in its fight against corruption.”
The defense and promise by the anti-graft body notwithstanding, The Point is really disturbed and worried at this embarrassing action, all in the name of fighting corruption. We condemn the EFCC’s action in all its entirety as there was no reason for the action . It is no longer news that the rule of law is no longer respected in Nigeria as the fundamental human rights of the citizens are somehow being trampled upon with so much impunity allegedly by uniformed agents of the state.
The blockade of the National Assembly by a group of officers from the
Department of State Services acting on an “order from above” is still fresh in the memory of Nigerians just we continue to wonder whether the embarrassing action of the DSS men would ever be
investigated.
Though the dismissal of the policemen who carried out the illegal search on Edwin Clark’s house have been effected, we are even not sure that the “errant officers” from the EFCC would be identified and punished for that show of
shame.
We therefore call on the federal government and all authorities concerned to call their uniformed men to order and stop embarrassing the current administration because of the overzealousness of a few officers.
