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Sodiq Ojuroungbe
Guests at one of the hotels that were raided by the operatives of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Tuesday narrated how their privacy was allegedly violated during the sting operation.
The guests who raised complaints to the Compliance officer of Celia’s Suites, Idowu Mosope disclosed that the EFCC operatives allegedly forcefully entered their rooms and met many of them naked.
Mosope while giving update about the raid by the EFCC operatives said the guests threatened to sue the hotel over the invasion .
PLATFORM TIMES had reported that the EFCC operatives on early hours of Monday invaded three hotels including government-owned hotel ,MITRO residences annex in Abeokuta and whisked away 56 suspected fraudsters .
The EFCC Head of Public Affairs, Ibadan, Mr. Tokunbo Odeniyi had confirmed the incident .
But, when Celia’s compliance officer spoke with PLATFORM TIMES, he narrated that the EFCC operatives numbering about 25 stormed the hotel in a commando-like manner and were armed to the teeth.
Mosope revealed that EFCC operatives went to the hotel’s front office at gun point, and threatened workers to lead them to the CCTV.
He further revealed that the operatives allegedly went to the hotel’s server room, took their gadgets and DVR.
He added, “After that they collected hotel master cards, they did not allow our staff to lead them ,they were opening the rooms one after the other with the master cards”.
Mosope however said some guests complained that they were naked when the EFCC operatives badged into their rooms around 3:am on Monday in search of internet fraudsters .
The Compliance officer who claimed that he has attended series of training by EFCC on money laundering and fraud, said the operatives pointed guns at the guests and later went away with three guests that arrived Nigeria from Dubai.
Mosope also faulted the manner by which the EFCC operatives adopted to carry their stung operation .
He further said, “They invaded into privacy of these guests without allowing our staff to guide them in line with the international standard and hotel practices that was not what they told us in the training .
“They did not knock , they did not spend more than 20 minutes here, it is like they are tracing somebody . If they had told us we would have shown them and other guests would not have known . They opened all the rooms and some guests were naked and scared .
“Now , the guests want to sue the hotel and not EFCC .They said why did we allow their privacy to be intruded , why did we give them master cards . We did not say they should not work, our boss hate anything like internet fraud . We don’t take them.”
He added that the EFCC operatives checked all the 15 rooms in the hotel, entered all the rooms and took away three guests.
“The guest came in on Saturday with his pregnant wife from Dubai and two of his friends .
“We collected his profile when he came and kept it .
“On his luggage we called police because the EFFC did not take his luggage away and his wife left the second day . We called police and they came to document it before we packed the load so that anytime he comes we can handover this luggage to him .
He however advised that the operatives need to be professional by arming themselves the warrant.
He said ” they should have come with warrant of arrest of somebody they are tracing , we are partners in progress.
“They have told us that we should cooperate and we are cooperating, anybody that they are tracking they should show us so that other people will not be affected . This has called us bad image , reputation has gone bad this is demarketing on its own .”
