Hotelier petitions EFCC over operatives’ raid of business premises

The Chief Executive Officer of Lakers Lounge Hotel and Bar, Ikorodu, Lagos State, Oladimeji Ogunfolaju, has petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission over the raids on his business premises by officials of the anti-graft agency.

He said the raids paralysed business activities at his facility and caused him to incur N168m debt.

Ogunfolaju’s counsel, Babatunde Ogala, in a petition, said around 11.45 pm on June 3, 2022, a combined team of EFCC operatives from Abuja and Ibadan stormed the business premises without a search or arrest warrant.

Ogala alleged that the operatives deliberately destroyed all the CCTV cameras installed on the business premises in a bid to cover their tracks.

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The petition read in part, “70% of the staff members were arrested and taken to Ibadan. We were further informed by our clients that operatives of the EFCC indiscriminately collected the phones of everyone on the premises, and to date, most of the phones collected have not been accounted for nor have they been returned to their owners.

“Both customers and members of staff who attempted to question their barbaric operation were severely beaten and maimed. It is disheartening that a business established to create employment has become the target of incessant raids by the EFCC, which conducted a previous raid in 2020. The raids have destroyed the image and crippled the business and finances of the company.”

Speaking on Saturday, Ogunfolaju said he contemplated suicide over his inability to pay the N168m debt incurred as a result of the raids.

 “I applied for N168m loan and was servicing the loan after the first raid on my business when EFCC operatives raided the premises again in 2022. The raid brought colossal damage to my finances, and I have not been able to service the loan. I want justice. I even contemplated suicide because the thought of the loan repayment has been affecting me,” he said.

When contacted on Sunday, the spokesperson for the EFCC, Dele Oyewale, said, “By our operational practice, there are no operatives of the commission that would break into anybody’s property as our operational modality does not allow that. We are not marauders. We don’t carry out raids on people’s properties. I sympathise with him, but he should investigate to find those who are responsible.”