{"id":10634,"date":"2022-02-21T09:08:45","date_gmt":"2022-02-21T08:08:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/?p=10634"},"modified":"2022-02-21T11:06:30","modified_gmt":"2022-02-21T10:06:30","slug":"efcc-did-not-sentence-8-suspected-internet-fraudsters-to-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/efcc-did-not-sentence-8-suspected-internet-fraudsters-to-death\/","title":{"rendered":"EFCC did not sentence 8 suspected internet fraudsters to death"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Claim: A post on the Official EFCC Instagram account alleged that the commission sentenced eight suspected internet fraudsters to death.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This claim that the EFCC sentenced eight suspected internet criminals to death is misleading and a clear misinterpretation from Instagram’s translator.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Text <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), established in 2003, is an executive body charged with enforcing law on finance-related crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This body adheres to its establishment Act of 2004 which confers on the commission the power to investigate and arrest offenders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently, the screenshot of a post by the EFCC (@officialefcc<\/a>) went viral on WhatsApp. This Instagram post claims eight individuals accused of cyber crime in Ilorin have been sentenced to death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018EFCC in Ilorin has sentenced eight people to death for cyber crimes,\u2019 part of the post reads. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The post identified the offence and names of the suspects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Screenshot<\/em> of the post being shared on WhatsApp.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Is the penalty for internet fraud death? This question prompted us to look into this claim. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Verification<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Dubawa first traced the commission\u2019s page on Instagram and found the original post. The original post was written in Igbo language, requiring a non-Igbo speaking user to use the artificial translator on Instagram to get the content of this post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Screenshot of the Original post in Igbo.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Screenshot of the post with the translation.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We observed that the screenshot shared on WhatsApp was that of the translated version of the post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This translated version on Instagram had attracted a lot of criticism from the public. An Instagram user went as far as saying \u2018the account was under attack.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also observed from the comment section that some users who understood Igbo noted there was an error.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One user noted that the translation had a typographical error, adding that the original message was \u2018EFCC has arrested 8 suspects of internet crimes.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another user also said it was the fault of the translator. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Screenshot of the comment section under the translation.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This prompted us to get a human translator who confirmed that in the original text (Igbo), there was nothing like a death sentence but of an arrest made by the EFCC. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, a keyword search on this led to a report by\u00a0 Channels Television<\/a> in English. This report noted that eight persons were arrested over alleged involvement in cyber fraud.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Screenshot of Channels TV report.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong> <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Our findings show that the post announced the arrest of eight suspects of cyber or internet crime in Ilorin. Normally, the EFCC does not have a judicial function, only investigation and prosecution. The EFCC did not pronounce a death sentence. This makes the translation in the  viral screenshot misleading. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Claim: A post on the Official EFCC Instagram account alleged that the commission sentenced eight suspected internet fraudsters to death.\u00a0 This claim that the EFCC sentenced eight suspected internet criminals to death is misleading and a clear misinterpretation from Instagram’s translator.\u00a0 Full Text  The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), established in 2003, is an executive body charged with enforcing law on finance-related crimes. This body adheres to its establishment Act of 2004 which confers on the commission the power to investigate and arrest offenders.  Recently, the screenshot of a post by the EFCC (@officialefcc) went viral on WhatsApp. This Instagram post claims eight individuals accused of cyber crime in Ilorin have been sentenced to death. \u2018EFCC in Ilorin has sentenced eight people to death for cyber crimes,\u2019 part of the post reads.  The post identified the offence and names of the suspects. Is the penalty for internet fraud death? This question prompted us to look into this claim.  Verification Dubawa first traced the commission\u2019s page on Instagram and found the original post. The original post was written in Igbo language, requiring a non-Igbo speaking user to use the artificial translator on Instagram to get the content of this post. We observed that the screenshot shared on WhatsApp was that of the translated version of the post. This translated version on Instagram had attracted a lot of criticism from the public. An Instagram user went as far as saying \u2018the account was under attack.\u2019 We also observed from the comment section that some users who understood Igbo noted there was an error. One user noted that the translation had a typographical error, adding that the original message was \u2018EFCC has arrested 8 suspects of internet crimes.\u2019 Another user also said it was the fault of the translator.  This prompted us to get a human translator who confirmed that in the original text (Igbo), there was nothing like a death sentence but of an arrest made by the EFCC.  Also, a keyword search on this led to a report by\u00a0 Channels Television in English. This report noted that eight persons were arrested over alleged involvement in cyber fraud.\u00a0 Conclusion  Our findings show that the post announced the arrest of eight suspects of cyber or internet crime in Ilorin. Normally, the EFCC does not have a judicial function, only investigation and prosecution. The EFCC did not pronounce a death sentence. This makes the translation in the  viral screenshot misleading. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"hannibal_claim_source":"","hannibal_source_label":"","hannibal_card_color":"blue","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_bluesky_share_type":"","_mastodon_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[1571],"tags":[3018,3016,3017,3019],"verdict":[],"ppma_author":[3015],"class_list":["post-10634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fact-check","tag-did-efcc-sentence-suspects-to-death","tag-economic-and-financial-crimes-commission-efcc","tag-instagram-post","tag-internet-fraudsters"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8R6dE-2Lw","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":3015,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"popoola-ademola","display_name":"Popoola Ademola","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"","first_name":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/EFCC-did-not-sentence-8-suspected-internet-fraudsters-to-death.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10634"},{"taxonomy":"verdict","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/verdict?post=10634"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=10634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}