The Port Harcourt Zonal office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has vowed to apprehend the promoter of a report in the social media, which falsely claimed that the Commission’s holding facility is overcrowded, while detainees are allegedly subjected to mistreatment.
Speaking at a media briefing Wednesday, February 12, 2020, Head of the Zonal Office, Usman Imam, dismissed the report as fake news, stating that “the picture of detainees crammed into an open air cell, purported to belong to the EFCC Zonal Office in Port Harcourt is fake. And the images are strange to us.”
Speaking further, Imam 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 prosecuted by the Commission usually 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.
While noting that the tweet by @ TheRealDayne was a mischievous fabrication, intended to mislead the public and ridicule the Commission, Imam 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 its 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,” he said.
The EFCC Zonal Head who conducted the journalists round the cell and the medical center of the zonal office, implored them to reflect the true situation 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.