Alleged Internet Fraud: EFCC Releases 58 OAU Students On Bail; Faces Pressure To Free 11 Others

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Wednesday night set free 58 out of 69 students taken into a detention facility in Ibadan earlier in the day, Peoples Gazette heard from a lawyer representing the detainees.

The students were arrested in an overnight raid that has set the country on edge and saw busloads of other students from the school besiege the anti-graft office’s zonal office in agitation for the release of their colleagues.

In a statement, the anti-graft agency accused the students of involvement in online fraud, although this was not immediately substantiated. Sixty-nine students were paraded on Wednesday afternoon, hours after the raid, alongside over 150 mobile phones and more than three dozen laptops. The students strongly denied the allegations, accusing the agency of high-handedness and disregard for constitutional rights.

Hussein Afolabi, one of the lawyers representing the students, said they were free on bail following immense public pressure but without stringent conditions.

“Fifty-eight students were just freed on bail now,” Mr Afolabi told The Gazette shortly after 9:00 p.m. “Eleven others still in custody would be freed tomorrow.”

Mr Afolabi said Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun, home to Obafemi Awolowo University, where the students were arrested by a team of anti-graft operatives around 2:00 a.m. Wednesday, has shown a keen interest in the matter, noting that the release was largely facilitated by him.

“The governor felt a sense of responsibility for the safety of the students because of the location of their school,” Mr Afolabi said, adding that the EFCC said its investigation into the matter would continue despite the release.

A spokesman for the EFCC did not immediately comment when The Gazette reached him on Wednesday night.