It appears that the directive by Ola Olukoyode, the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), to his officers to stop sting operations at night may have been a mere tactic to quell public criticism of such an operational strategy.

Following a predawn raid on off-campus student hostels at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) in Ile-Ife by the agency in November where 69 students were arrested from their apartments, Olukoyode issued a directive banning overnight raids by the operatives of the agency in all its commands.

Hours after their arrest and strident backlash against the EFCC, the commission let 58 of the OAU students go.

READ ALSO: EFCC Arrests Campus Reporter, 46 UDUS Students in Morning Raid

EFCC spokesperson Dele Oyewale released a brief statement on the directive on November 1, 2023. According to Oyewale, the directive followed “the newly-reviewed procedures on arrest and bail of suspects” by the agency.

Nevertheless, this directive has failed to be accompanied by compliance across the agency’s formations in the country. At least two notable examples of such night sting operations have become public knowledge lately.

On June 8, FIJ reported how the agency broke into two clubhouses in Akure, Ondo State, and arrested several individuals, assaulting club workers as well as vandalising properties, including CCTV cameras.

Oluyemi Fasipe, a resident of the state, narrated on X how the invasion played out. The incident was widely reported in the news.

“The EFCC conducted a raid on two clubs in Akure overnight. They carried out physical assaults on almost everyone in the club, used tear gas, made random arrests, confiscated the phones of all the females present, damaged the CCTV cameras, and took away the engine. Some people were being rushed to the hospital. This is totally unacceptable!” Fasipe shared.

The second example occurred on Saturday in Sokoto State. At midnight, the operatives of the agency invaded the hostels of Usman Danfodiyo University (UDUS) students located outside the campus.

Some of the arrested students told FIJ that about 49 of them were picked up from their residences at Kwakwalawa, Gidan Yaro and Dandima at midnight and driven to the agency’s office in the state.

Without a specific target person, the anti-corruption operatives started checking the students’ devices looking for who had incriminating information with which to nail them.

After spending hours at the EFCC office in the state, some of the students were released after the officers found no odd information with which to link them to crimes.

“They checked my phone apps and interviewed me for minutes,” Abdulmalik Abdulkadir told FIJ on Saturday.

“About 16 students were arrested from my own hostel. But over 46 students were arrested in all the places they went to, according to my count.”

When FIJ contacted Oyewale for comment on the UDUS students’ arrest on Saturday, he said he had to call EFCC’s Sokoto office before responding. He provided no feedback afterwards.

READ ALSO: Despite Chairman’s Ban on Night Raids, EFCC Officials Storm Akure Clubs, Assault Clubbers

On Monday, however, the agency posted on X that it had arrested 13 suspected internet fraudsters in Sokoto who “claimed to be students of Usman Danfodio University Sokoto”.

Noticeably, it failed to disclose that the arrests were conducted in violation of its earlier directive banning such overnight operations.

FIJ was unable to get the EFCC spokesperson’s comment on this story as of press time. He neither answered his call nor responded to a text asking whether the officers were flouting the directive or if the directive had been withdrawn without public communication.