At the Kaduna Zonal Command of the anti-graft agency on Friday, there was a confrontation between representatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and a few Nigerian Air Force officers.
It was said that the NAF staff rushed the commission’s office, hoping to free their colleagues who had been detained by EFCC agents earlier for allegedly trying to forcefully release fraud suspects from detention.
The state’s anti-graft office announced that on Monday, its agents detained five individuals at a restaurant in the Barnawa region of the state after receiving reliable information about their purported involvement in online fraud.
The names of the suspected fraudsters are Favour Itung, Rachael Ande, Zuleiman Haruna, Abubakar Ismaila, and Solomon Olobatoke, according to a statement issued on Friday by EFCC spokesman Dele Oyewale.
However, the EFCC reported that six military personnel who were present during the sting operation assaulted the restaurant’s Kaduna Command and attempted to forcefully release the fraud suspects who had been apprehended. However, they were restrained and imprisoned due to the security breach.
Four Air Force members—Lawal Abdullahi, Chukwuma Christian, Alfa Suleiman, and Emmanuel Ekwozor—as well as two students from the Nigerian Air Force Institute of Technology, Chidera Anuba and Joseph Tokula, are the invaders, according to the anti-graft agency.
The EFCC further stated that interagency talks and contact were held while the detainee was being held by the EFCC and NAF leadership in order to settle the issue.
Sadly, negotiations to free the rebellious Air Force soldiers fell down on Friday, November 17, 2023, when several misbehaving NAF officers assaulted the Kaduna Command in a commando fashion in an attempt to forcibly free their jailed colleagues.
“The EFCC showed restraint in the face of the egregious misuse of authority and provocation.
“The xommission proceeded to communicate with the Nigeria Air Force’s leadership and released the officers to the NAF Provost following their appropriate profiling.
“The EFCC wants to reassure the public that it will keep up its legal duty to investigate all cases of financial and economic crimes, without interference or delay.”