Etim Ekpimah
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has rejected as false a video circulating on social media about some EFCC operatives assaulting an upcoming actress, Helen Duru.
A statement from the EFCC spokesman, Mr Wilson Uwujaren, on Sunday, said checks by the commission, however, flagged Helen Aduru, an upcoming actress, as a mere publicity- seeking player, with a poorly- scripted claim that has fallen flat in the face of unassailable facts available to the commission.
He said that in her script, she was quick to include five names of officers she claimed came from the Cybercrime Section of the Enugu Command of the commission. Characteristically, EFCC’s officers don’t wear name tags nor move around with bulldozer- shaped equipment to pull down security doors.
“The attention of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has been drawn to an online video trending on Instagram, from the handle of a certain “@Iamhelenaduru”, a self- styled actress, purporting, quite mischievously, an assault by operatives of the Commission.
“Aduru claimed, rather strangely, that she was assisted by a little boy, to a Police Station at 3:44 am but met the station shut. It is important to note that Police Stations are not civil service ministries that “close” in the evening. Even more preposterous is the fact that she never went back, at daybreak, to lodge a complaint.
“More poignantly untenable is the fact that her purported assault of July 21, 2022, which has not been logged nearly two months later at the Police Station is only being brought to public glare on September 2, 2022!! Such a scene could only stand on a typical Nollywood fiction series.
“Such claims by Aduru, like all other stranger- than- fiction, click-baiting, sympathy-seeking ploys, do not merit a response but for the need to avoid “silence is acquiescence” stance of mischief makers. Deeper checks on the matter only showed that, certain blackmailers could be bandying some known names in the Enugu Zonal Command to settle some scores,” he said.
According to Uwujaren, the commission, strictly guided by its Standard Operational Procedure, would not succumb to blackmail or any sleight of hand by any character.
He noted that the poorly- scripted video would be further analysed for more forensic details and possible legal action to dissuade those who seem to be making an industry of falsely accusing and maligning the commission.
Uwujaren urged members of the to ignore Aduru’s claims, adding that EFCC’s officers are not assaulters or terrorists.