Human rights activist Omoyele Sowore has vehemently criticised the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), holding the anti-graft agency’s alleged deviation from its core mission responsible for the tragic death of Endurance Udeke, a resident of Periwinkle Estate in Lekki Phase 1, Lagos. Udeke reportedly died by suicide following an EFCC operation.
In a statement released on Saturday, November 9th, Sowore responded to the EFCC’s official communication, which claimed the agency “felt obliged to clear the air” on the circumstances of the death.
Sowore dismissed the EFCC’s clarification, arguing that the incident is symptomatic of a profound institutional failure. He asserted that the tragedy “is not just about one boy’s death; it is about an institution that has lost its way, its fangs, and its moral compass.”
The activist, a prominent government critic, claimed the EFCC, created to fight corruption, has now “strayed from its core mandate and become a caricature of itself.”
He accused the agency of prioritising easy targets over powerful, politically exposed offenders:
“Instead of pursuing the real criminals, the politically exposed looters and architects of grand corruption, the EFCC now preys on easy targets: the so-called Yahoo Boys, young men and women whose alleged crimes pale in comparison to the billions stolen by those in power,” Sowore wrote. “This tragic inversion of justice has made the EFCC a tool of oppression rather than a vehicle for accountability.”
Sowore connected Udeke’s death to a wider pattern of “misguided” operations, recalling an earlier incident in Enugu where a young EFCC officer was killed during a raid, a case which he claimed “quietly disappeared.”
The activist issued a stern warning to the commission: “The EFCC must be reminded that fighting corruption does not mean killing citizens. The agency must cleanse itself of rot, rediscover its purpose, and begin to hold the actual economic criminals, powerful, protected, and privileged, accountable.”
Sowore concluded that until the agency reforms, every such death “will stand as a shameful indictment of an agency that has become part of the very corruption it was created to fight.”
