The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on Sunday admitted that it forced the pulling of surveillance recordings of nightclubs after its operatives unleashed violence against revellers in Akure.
The raids, which occurred between late Friday and early Saturday, have continued to generate nationwide uproar.
Nigerians say the agency did not appear to have learnt any lessons from the controversies it suffered over similar raids in 2021 and 2022.
In a statement on Sunday night, the EFCC said its agents were tracing suspected internet fraudsters to nightclubs in the Alagbaka area of the Ondo capital.
But Nigerians have lampooned the agency for its high-handedness because internet fraud is not a violent crime and operatives failed to conduct themselves in line with modern best practices.
Scores of clubgoers sustained severe bodily injuries, while some women reported being sexually assaulted, with videos of bruises to their buttocks shared on social media.
While pushing back against criticism on Sunday, EFCC spokesman Dele Oyewole said agents ordered club managers to remove CCTV material, adding that it would enable the anti-graft office to better investigate how the raid unfolded.
Anti-graft agents “directed the removal of the CCTV device for further investigative works by the commission,” Mr Oyewole said. “It is in the custody of the EFCC with the CCTV.”
But critics quickly dismissed the claim as frivolous because the EFCC operatives arrived at the scene with their own cameras. Many said the agency was trying to confiscate or destroy evidence of its officers’ culpability in unleashing violence on unarmed citizens.
The EFCC also falsely claimed that the videos shared online were manipulated to achieve purportedly unclearly ends, adding that the operation was without skirmishes because it followed “established norms.”
However, the agency did not provide any evidence to support its claim that the multimedia might have been doctored. An analysis by Peoples Gazette did not yield any evidence of manipulation.
