Reactions on social media on the untimely death of one of its officers, Assistant Superintendent Aminu Salisu, have been denounced by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
According to the commission, on January 17, 2025, Salisu was shot and killed in Awka, Anambra State, while participating in a lawful operation.
Dele Oyewale, the spokesman for the EFCC, said in a statement on Sunday that Salisu and his associates were conducting an early-morning raid at Dr. J.O. Ukwutinife Close in Ifite, Awka, targeted a two-story structure that housed 37 alleged online scammers.
Oyewale claimed that although the operation went well at first, things got out of hand when Joshua Chukwubueze Ikechukwu, a suspected online scammer who had been notified by CCTV, refused to let the investigators into his home.
He said, “The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, expresses grief on the loss of one of its officers, Assistant Superintendent of the EFCC, ASE11 Aminu Sahabi Salisu, who was killed in cold blood while on a legitimate duty on January 17, 2025, by a suspected internet fraudster, Joshua Chukwubueze Ikechukwu.
“Additionally, the Commission views with great concern the irresponsible, callous, inhuman and outrageous narratives being circulated on social media on the whys and wherefores of the fatal accident. It is heinous to reduce the death of a gallant officer who was carrying out patriotic and official duties to social media razzmatazz.
“More worrisome is the fact that some faceless commentators are pitching their tents with an alleged criminal who unleashed terror on officers of the EFCC in their line of duty. There is no justification whatsoever to rationalise a murderous act.
“The milk of human kindness demands that a grieving family, Commission and nation should be spared the shenanigans of false narratives and conjectures on the death of the slain officer.
“Salisu, alongside other investigators of the EFCC, was at Dr J.O. Ukwutinife Close, Ifite, Awka, Anambra State, to arrest some suspected internet fraudsters in the early hours of January 17. The operation was duly documented at the Anambra State Command Headquarters and Area Command of the Nigeria Police in line with operational protocols.
“However, Ikechukwu, who sighted the investigators through a CCTV camera mounted at his doorpost and who also confessed sighting them, declined to open his door for the investigators, who politely demanded entrance to his apartment.
He claimed that Ikechukwu killed Salisu and wounded another cop by pulling the trigger of his revolver in spite of their courteous attempts to enter.
According to Oyewale, “he killed Salisu and injured another officer assigned to search for his apartment by firing shots at them, defying all the investigators’ introductions and physical sightings.”