THERE is a growing danger in the method and style of the operations of the anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission [EFCC] in its increasingly suspect, indeed dubious strivings to deliver on its mandate. It’s becoming obvious that the agency believes more in the media trial of its preys and public lynching of suspects in its clutches. The agency now prefers to bask in the limelight. Not that the agency had been acting manifestly differently since its establishment by the administration of a former president, Olusegun Obasanjo [1999-2007]. Its conduct had always been an admixture of reacting to cases of real and phantom corruption allegations, and lending itself to be used as a tool for witch-hunt by a sitting and willing president. It was the case under Obasanjo, Muhammadu Buhari [2015-2023], and now Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The use and abuse of the EFCC was benign under President Goodluck Jonathan [2010-2015] and perceptively less so during the short reign of the late Umaru Yar’Adua [2007-2010].
With the current Nigerian president, Tinubu, the perception and real abuse of the EFCC has been unrivalled. He will be three years in office on May 29th. As with every sensitive position in his numbingly nepotistic regime his kinsman, Ola Olukoyede, was named as the chairman of the anti-graft agency in October 2023 for a four-year tenure. At the time he was appointed, Olukoyede had practiced law for about 22 years in areas covering regulatory compliance, fraud management, and corporate intelligence. He had earlier served as chief of staff to the EFCC chairman and secretary to the commission between 2016 and 2023. President Tinubu had said then that he named Olukoyede for the job because of his background as a lawyer, and that he expected that he would steer the agency toward compliance with the rule of law in the conduct of its business. By the way, Olukoyede was also said to be a clergyman of the Pentecostal strand. The jury is still out on how much the expectations have been met. But if the event of May 12 could serve as a measure of how far the EFCC has been reformed, then it would be right to conclude that the agency still has a long way to go in complying with the broader requirements of its own Standard Operating Procedure [SOP].
There was a report that on May 12, 2026, operatives of the EFCC stormed the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital in Akwa Ibom state in broad day light. They claimed that they came to the hospital, a sanctuary for the infirm, the sick, and the dying, to verify a medical report allegedly tendered by a fraud suspect in court. The agency claimed that its violation of the sanctity of the hospital was because it had written letters to the teaching hospital in March and April on the issue. It alleged that the letters were ignored. The EFCC then claimed that its operatives were attacked, pelted with missiles and stones, and locked inside by the hospital staff when they went to inquire about the status of their correspondences.
But the man at the centre of the ugly encounter, Eyo Ekpe, a professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery detailed his experiences with the invading operatives. He spoke at a press conference where he narrated the sequence of the events that culminated in the confrontation between the hospital staff and the agents. Prof. Ekpe said that he had just returned from an official trip outside Akwa Ibom state when he was assigned to handle the EFCC request in addition to his routine responsibility which included ‘’clinical duties, supervision of resident doctors and teaching medical students’’. He said that he subsequently invited the head of the Internal Medicine Department because of the nature of the inquiry.
According to him the head of that department ‘’discovered that the doctor whose name appeared on the report was not a staff member of the department’’. Prof. Ekpe stated that after further checks, he prepared a draft response to the EFCC on May 11, 2026, confirming that the medical report was not genuine. He said that the anti-graft agency visited his office the following day to collect the response. He said that he informed them that the document still required approval from the Chief Medical Director before it could be officially signed and stamped. ‘’I showed him [presumably the leader of the team] the draft and explained that it still had to be presented to the Chief Medical Director before it could be released officially’’.
During the press conference Ekpe said that shortly after the operatives left his office, they returned with another armed officer and informed him that he was under arrest. ‘’I told them [that] I did not issue the report, my name was not on it, and [that] it did not come from my unit. But they asked me to explain that at their office. They dragged me to the walkway, and I started crying. Staff members who heard me [my cry] rushed out, [but] they said that I must not talk to anyone. They held guns behind and in front of me while dragging me.’’
Prof. Ekpe said that the hospital workers resisted his arrest, which may have prompted the EFCC operatives to call for reinforcement. ‘’Not long after, masked and armed men arrived. They threatened people around, and everyone started running. We were emotionally traumatised. Tear gas was fired, and live bullets were shot.’’ The Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Prof. Emamabasi Bassey , confirmed that Prof. Ekpe and four other workers were arrested without prior notice to the hospital management. And probably without any warrant of arrest. He denied claims that the hospital ignored earlier EFCC correspondence, affirming that the only letter received by his office was dated April 21, 2026.
Curiously, it took days before the EFCC issued a statement in which it denied that its operatives assaulted and arrested any staff of the university teaching hospital. Interestingly, the agency said it would investigate the matter. Do you really investigate what didn’t happen? Well, let us interrogate what appears to be a self-indicting press statement by the EFCC.
Dele Oyewale is the spokesman for the agency. He said last weekend that their operatives visited the university earlier in the week but that the visit was purely administrative, but at the same time, that the agency had ordered an investigation into the matter. ‘’While awaiting the outcome of the inquiry, any staff of the commission found to have deviated from the Standard Operating Procedure of the agency, will not be spared’’. He said the presence of the commission’s operatives in the facility on Tuesday, May 12, 2026 was purely administrative, to facilitate the authentication of a document, rather than a tactical operation to effect arrest. Contrary to the information making the rounds, no arrests were made and the staff of the hospital that followed our operatives to the zonal command were not detained. We have not seen any physical evidence of such brutality in terms of bodily harm or injury to anyone, including to the staff members who addressed the media on the issue.” And they said that they appreciated ‘stakeholders’ who had waded in to ensure an amicable resolution of the matter.
There are riddles in the EFCC statement that needed to be unravelled and resolved. The agency said that there was no assault, there were no arrests, and there was no detention. But in the same breadth the agency said that some hospital staff ‘’followed’’ their operatives to the zonal office. As what? Escorts or to provide a protective shield to the friendly invaders or to thank the operatives and demonstrate gratitude for the purely administrative visit? If the EFCC read its own statement and it did not come across to them as being utterly stupid and self-indicting, then the problem of the agency is worse than we are willing to acknowledge. In the same statement the agency said that the incidence of violence did not happen because it did not see evidence of such ‘’brutality in terms of bodily harm or injury to anyone,…’’ Is the EFCC real? Assuming without conceding that there was no ‘’bodily harm or injury’’, what about psychological and emotional trauma? How would the EFCC determine that from their safe distance? And there was the angle of the agency’s poor attempt to blackmail Nigerians who deprecated their obviously reckless action in a hospital by the resort to claiming that the incident was being ‘’exploited by some fifth columnists to undermine the fight against corruption in Nigeria’’. The EFCC is advised to pause and listen to itself. And to feel the pulse of Nigerians regarding its so-called war against corruption. It should ask itself whether its attitude to the diligent investigation and prosecution of politically exposed persons of a particular hue or party affiliation endears the agency to the vast majority of Nigerians?
Anti-corruption agencies have critical roles to play in a country such as Nigeria where corruption has become a monster. And nobody who hungers for the good of society should trifle with, scoff at, or undermine the cleansing job they were created to do. But we should not because of the work that they purport to carry out endorse this institutional overreach by the EFCC in Uyo. The minimum expectation is that there should be an independent inquiry into the Uyo incident. It portends ill for this country. The brazen attempt by the EFCC to probe itself is phoney and idiotic. Healthcare facilities in our country are in dire straits. The working conditions of our healthcare professionals are depressing. The situation in that sector has not been made any better by the paucity of cash-backed budgetary provisions over the years and since the maximum ruler, the late Gen. Sani Abacha, described our hospitals as ‘mere consulting clinics’. The report in public domain was that about N30million was released in 2025 to the federal ministry of health to cater to the needs of about 230million Nigerians. Wrap your head around that. Healthcare professionals are fleeing the country daily. The EFCC or any other agency for that matter should not use Gangster Operating Procedures instead of Standard Operating Procedure to worsen the woes of a country that increasingly appears to be benighted. Glossing over this apparent recklessness by the EFCC will not bode well for Nigeria.
***My sincere apologies to my readers for the absence of this column. It was due to reasons beyond my control.
