The National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, has urged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to stop indiscriminate arrest of students and young Nigerians in the South-West region to avoid the wrath of the youths.
The Coordinator of NANS in the South-West, Olatunji Adegboye, who said this in a statement on Friday accused the anti-corruption agency of arresting huge number of law-abiding students to make money for themselves.
The NANS statement came a day after the EFCC announced the arrest of 80 suspected Internet fraudsters in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
Adegboye said the indiscriminate arrests by the EFCC is not limited to Ibadan, but is happening across the states in the South-West region while calling on the agency to stop.
The statement read, “Today, some law abiding and legitimately engaged students were illegally arrested by men of EFCC in Ibadan and all efforts to reach the agency have proven abortive so far as the agency is deliberately frustrating every attempt by NANS to engage them. This illegal arrest is one out of many unfortunate and needless occurrence happening across South Western Nigeria.
“In times past, EFCC and NANS have a strong symbiotic relationship wherein collaborative efforts are conceived and implemented towards combating crimes holistically.
“However, things took an unfortunate turn when the agency started victimizing innocent citizens.
It is now common to see EFCC officers engaging in stop and search when they’re not policemen. This is alien to the normal practices in a sane and developed society.
“There are strong indications that the current spate of arrests is targeted at students leaders so as to demoralize, subdue and undermine the students constituency.
“We advise the EFCC to strictly obey the laws God and the law of the land and to carry out their duties conscientiously.
”We also want to emphatically affirm that going forward, all of forms of illegitimacy meted to the students sector shall be stiffly resisted via every legal tools available to us including petitions, protests, rallies and peaceful demonstrations.
“It is imperative that all forms of stop and search or roadblocks on the main roads and students environments especially, be ended immediately. This is of utmost importance to avoid mob action against EFCC officers.”
Photo caption:
(File photo)Arrest of suspected internet fraudsters by the EFCC in Ibadan.
