Officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, have said the anti-graft agency was not aware of a raid carried out on Conference Hotel in Abeokuta. The hotel belongs to a former governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel.
The hotel authorities, after the raid, had alleged that personnel of the EFCC raided the hotel in search of suspected internet fraudsters, popularly known as “Yahoo boys”.
But officials of the EFCC in swift reaction denied knowledge of the raid, according to the PUNCH newspaper.
Tokunbo Odebiyi, the spokesperson of the Ibadan zonal office of the EFCC, was quoted saying, “I have no information about the operation. I’m not aware of any invasion of any hotel in Abeokuta.”
Similarly, his counterpart in the Lagos zonal office of the commission, Ayo Oyewole, said he was not aware of the invasion.
Meanwhile, contrary to the statements of the anti-graft agency spokespersons, the media office of Gbenga Daniel said the anti-graft agency raided the hotel around 2:00 am on Sunday.
The statement read partly, “Some unknown gunmen believed to be acting at the behest of one of the anti-graft agencies stormed the premises of the hotel facility in Abeokuta in search of an unknown ‘yahoo boy’. Unnecessary shots were fired and our innocent guests were scared.
“Thankfully, our various security agencies were able to restore law and order and no life was lost. We thank all our customers for their patience and understanding and reassure all and the general public of their safety at all times in all our facilities.”
A lodger told our correspondent that an award party was held in the hotel on Saturday night, which attracted a lot of people to the hotel.
It was further gathered that the operatives, who allegedly broke into the guests’ room during the raid, confiscated mobile phones, laptops and exotic cars reportedly belonging to the suspected fraudsters.
