A human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr. Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, has advised the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mr. Abdulrasheed Bawa, to call the operatives of the Commission to order.

The armed EFCC officials had on Monday, August 23, 2021 invaded the Lekki residence of Big Brother Naija Lockdown housemate, Dorathy Bachor.

The former housemate in the 2020 edition of BBNaija television reality show had taken to her Instastory on Monday, to reveal that EFCC operatives broke into her Lekki residence in Lagos around 5am looking for a suspected internet fraudster.

The EFCC later confirmed the invasion in a statement on Monday. Though the EFCC claimed nine suspected internet fraudsters were arrested in the building housing Dorathy’s flat, no suspect was specifically arrested in the BBN star’s apartment. The agency did not also release the details of the suspects arrested in the other flats in the building.

Hours later, EFCC officials returned to whisk Dorathy away for interrogation. Dorathy’s sister, Cynthia Bachor later confirmed that the BBN star was subsequently released.

Adegboruwa, who is a member of the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry probing alleged killing of #EndSARS protesters by soldiers at the Lekki toll gate, told the PUNCH Newspaper that the anti-graft agency was beginning to act like the Department of State Services, while trampling upon the fundamental rights of citizens.

He urged Dorathy to approach the court to seek redress. According to him, every citizen is entitled to right to privacy of his home and correspondences.

“It is the same reaction that Nigerians gave in respect of the DSS invasion of the home of Chief Sunday Adeyemo. In light of the insecurity pervading the country, the DSS should not continue to issue search warrants and invade people’s homes in the dead of the night because armed robbers can take advantage of this to harm citizens.

“Under the constitution, citizens’ privacy, their homes, phones and others are guaranteed and the EFCC should not be trampling on people’s fundamental human rights.” Adegboruwa said

The Learned Silk further said that there is no reason for EFCC to have displayed gangsterism as arrest of internet fraudsters could also be done during the day. He warned against unleashing horror on citizens in attempting to justify performance. He also called on Bawa to stop EFCC operatives from employing the gestapo mode of operation since we are in a democratic setting.

He said, “There is nothing so sacrosanct about the arrest of internet fraudsters that cannot happen during the day. No circumstance warrants the display of gangsterism by the EFCC.

“In the case of the lady (Dorathy) whose house was invaded, it later turned out that she was not the one they were looking for. It also later almost turned out that her mother almost had a cardiac arrest. I don’t think we should unleash horror on our citizens in an attempt to justify performance.

“The chairman of the EFCC is somebody we respect so much and I least expect this from him at all. It is being recurring since he came into office. He should rein in and stop this; we cannot have this in a democratic government.”