EFCC detains 19-yr-old Babcock student writing exams over mother’s debt

The prosecutor alleged that he invested a whooping sum of N100m into the defendant business back in 2020.

A 300-level female student of Babcock University, Oluwateniola Omidiji has reportedly missed her exam after the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) stormed her school and arrested her over an alleged debt her mother, Omoniyi Omidiji owed a business partner.

According to reports, the 19-year-old student was arrested by operatives of the EFCC while she was in the school premises on Friday, April 26, 2024 over a business transaction entered into in 2020.

The case, which has now become a fundamental rights suit, marked FHC/L/CS/759/224, was filed at the Federal High Court, Lagos.

In the suit, Miss Omidiji alleged that she was taken hostage by the EFCC over a debt allegation one Charles Nwoko leveled against her mother, whom he said he partnered in 2020.

Charles Nwoko had said, in the reports, that he invested a sum of N100,000,000 into Mrs. Omidiji’s business sometime in 2020. He went after her daughter for the sum and interest since her business partner (the mother) is out of the country.

Also, it was stated that Mrs. Omidiji had named her daughter as the director of the company, Elisto Global Services Limited, which she allegedly used to receive the money from Nwoko.

However, the EFCC’s investigation has shown that four persons were named as directors on the company.
Oluwateniola (Miss. Omidiji) has cried out to the court for relief after she was paraded by the EFCC in her school while she was writing exams. She said that since the operatives took her away, she has been detention ever since and has not been granted bail.

The EFCC reportedly insists that since she was named as the director of the company, she should answer for her mother’s presumed crime.

In the fundamental human rights suit filed by her lawyer, Chijioke Emeka, SAN, Oluwateniola revealed that she was only 16 when her mother entered into the partnership with Nwoko and she knew nothing about the deal.

She further lamented that it was not right of the EFCC to detain her over a crime allegedly committed by her mother.

The 19-year-old also argued that the transaction was a civil matter and asked the court to order the EFCC to leave her out of the issue and pay her N10,000,000 as damages for violation of her fundamental rights to human dignity, personal liberty, fair hearing, and freedom of movement.