Peter Oti, EFFC and Buhari’s war against corruption

Friday,17th July, 2015. It was about 7.10 am. Dr.Peter Akpa Oti, a lecturer in the Department of Accounting, University of Calabar and until recently the Chairman, CRS Internal Revenue Service was preparing to step out of his Federal Housing Authority estate residence for his normal early morning jogging exercise. A message came from his gate […]

Friday,17th July, 2015. It was about 7.10 am. Dr.Peter Akpa Oti, a lecturer in the Department of Accounting, University of Calabar and until recently the Chairman, CRS Internal Revenue Service was preparing to step out of his Federal Housing Authority estate residence for his normal early morning jogging exercise. A message came from his gate that one ‘Moses’ wished to see him. Since he did not know any man called Moses and had not given anyone appointment to see him that early in the day, he was wary of inviting the visitor in. He decided he will see the man at the gate on his way out. He got there and wound his car window down in order to speak with the towering figure of a man who called himself Moses, obviously a cover name. Unknown to
Oti, the man, in company of two policemen deployed from the Zone 6 Police Command, was laying in ambush for him. The message ‘Moses’ had sent earlier pretending to be a friend was nothing but a perfect ruse to gain access and execute his evil mission. He struggled and entered Oti’s car and began to fight for the key switch with Oti.
While struggling to gain control of the car, the Moses blurted out that he was an EFCC operative sent to arrest Oti. In the process of the titanic fight Oti’s car switch was damaged. Fearing that he was about to become a victim of kidnapping, Oti summoned the help of his aides Peter Ogar and Joe Odey who were standing nearby. As they joined him in the fight to ward off this strange muscular attacker, the man’s police men accomplices who were in hiding and watching the struggle not far away from the scene, now approached with guns corked and with menace on their faces, commanded Oti and his men to enter a waiting Hiace bus. The whole fight, which according to Oti took less than three minutes, looked like a macabre scene from a Mafia commando operation. While as safe captives in the Hiace bus, ‘Moses’ proceeded to rain blows, slaps and curses on Oti and his two aides apparently to completely subdue them. That was how in Gestapo style, Oti, in his jogging outfit and without any breakfast, in tow with his men, was captured and driven off not knowing where he was being taken to and by whom and for what offence. The tortuous journey that began at about 7 am that Black Friday for Oti eventually terminated at 5 pm in Port-Harcourt in an EFCC detention centre. It was while they were driven out of Calabar and were on their way to Itu in Akwa-Ibom State about sixty kilometres away that the leader of what looked like a kidnap gang in the clothing of an EFFC operative, made a most revealing phone call to his paymaster. The man reportedly said: “Hello sir, good morning. I have accomplished the task as directed. The bastard, Dr. Peter Oti, has been arrested along with two of his boys who tried to resist his arrest. I have also dealt with them the way they deserve. When I get to Port-Harcourt, I will inform you. Thank you, sir”. Tired, hungry, fearful and angry, it was only when he arrived Port Harcourt that Oti was told that there was a petition against him that as erstwhile Chairman of the
IRS, he had connived with some revenue consultants to steal hundreds of millions of Naira of CRS money and had bought property in “choice places in Calabar, Port-Harcourt and Abuja’’. Oti was let off on bail the next day, apparently because the so-called EFCC people in Port-Harcourt and those pulling the invidious strings back in Calabar have no case against him. The whole aim of the abduction was not to catch a thief but to dehumanize and humiliate Oti for since that July 17and until now, no one has charged him to court and brought evidence to show that he has property in ‘’choice places in Calabar, Port Harcourt and Abuja’’. It is obvious that the whole wicked show was planned and executed by either the state executive himself or by his henchmen with his knowledge and acquiescence, with the sole purpose of paying Oti back for passing a vote of no confidence on his government by resigning from his post. Apparently, Oti’s traducers do not believe that anyone can be the head of a revenue collecting agency in Nigeria without falling to the temptation of cornering some of the revenue for himself. Even if a prima facie case existed with which to arrest and prosecute Oti, was the manner of his abduction (not arrest) the way the anti-corruption war should be carried out by the EFCC? Was the tactic adopted by the police and the so-called
EFCC operative Moses in this shameful saga not a perfect way to give the anti-corruption fight a bad name in a way to possibly hang it? This is to alert President Muhammadu Buhari to the fact that if he is not watchful, his well-meaning and most desirable anti-corruption war will easily be hijacked by evilous men to settle political scores. He should remember how in his first coming, the defunct NSO under Mohammed Rafindadi gave his WAI such a bad name which paved way for the easy palace coup he suffered subsequently. It needs to be pointed out that there are some elements in the Ibrahim Lamorde-led EFCC who are thoroughly corrupt and have become agents in the hands of some wicked men. Some of those agents lack any moral authority to arrest anyone for corruption. My humble advice is that an internal house cleansing exercise that will flush out bad eggs in the organisation should be embarked upon before that agency will acquire the credibility to participate in Buhari’s war against corruption. It has since come to light that the ‘Moses’ who led that team to capture Oti without any arrest warrant or following any civilized protocol and who proceeded to brutalise and humiliate him, is none other than ASP Babale Gwalo, a serving police officer with EFCC, Port Harcourt. Gwalo worked in evil concert with DSP Mark Ayoagu (retired) who is currently the Chief Security Officer to CRS governor Ben Ayade to please the governor because Oti had displeased him. Some nearly two months after this incident, Oti, a perfect gentleman who will not hurt a fly, still feels traumatised by the whole incident. He cannot believe that he who should be regarded as the Babatunde Fowler of CRS for significantly increasing the CRS Internally Generated Revenue, as Fowler did in Lagos State for which he has now been made Chairman of the Federal Internal Revenue Service, should be so shabbily treated. As the embattled EFCC Chairman himself fights for his survival on that chair, he should spare some time to investigate what really happened in Calabar on Friday, July 17. Was ASP Babale Gwalo on an officially approved EFCC mission or was he like many other EFCC operatives on a hired mission? If he was on a legitimate mission, is that the way EFCC men have been trained to carry out their arrest assignments? I believe that Lamorde owes Oti and dozens of other Nigerians who are treated in similar shabby fashion by EFCC operatives an apology.