The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has vowed to apprehend the promoter of a report in the social media, claiming its Port Harcourt holding facility is overcrowded and alleging mistreatment of detainees. Head of the Port Harcourt Zonal office, Usman Imam speaking at a media briefing today, February 12, 2020, dismissed the report as fake news.
According to him, “the picture of detainees crammed into an open air cell purported to belong to the EFCC Zonal office in Port Harcourt is fake. The images are strange to us”.
He further stated that the Commission, “do not have an open cell, our cell is a stand-alone facility with no close proximity to any storey building; we have never had large inmates that the cell could not accommodate, and we have no history of mistreatment of detainees”.
He noted that suspects being tried by the Commission prefer to be remanded in EFCC custody. “If the Commission had been abusing the rights of detainees, they would not prefer its facility to prison”, he added.
The Zonal Head described the tweet by @ TheRealDayne as a mischievous fabrication intended to mislead the public and ridicule the Commission. He vowed that the culprit would be tracked, arrested and prosecuted.
He however assured that the mischief will not deter the Commission “from the vigorous pursuit of our mandate to fight economic and financial crimes. Under my watch, there shall be no hiding place for criminals in the zone, be they illegal oil bunkerers or cyber criminals”.
Imam who conducted the journalists round the Cell and the Medical Centre of the zonal office, implored them to reflect the reality in their reports. “This is the reason I have invited you to see things for yourselves, to enable you inform the public about the true situation”, he said.
