The media parade of seven-year-old boy Victor Oche Odeh, who has now has been reportedly convicted by the Kaduna State High Court based on his prosecution by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on June 26, has been described as “disconcerting, indecorous, and ill-conceived”.

The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), which made this observation in a media statement on Sunday, questioned the rationale behind charging a seven-year-old child in the same regular court with adults “when the anti-corruption agency could have done more investigation to ascertain whether the child was not actually bullied by the adults to participate in the fraud for which the child has now been convicted in Kaduna.”

“The National Assembly needs to work out a law to make it obligatory that children who are in conflict with the law are not unduly exposed and demonised. It is absolutely inappropriate to parade a child for a crime known to have been initiated by adults. To rub salt into injury, the media parade of this little boy is tantamount to psychologically damaging the reputation of this boy for life which is unfair, illegal and wicked. We don't condone crimes but we believe that such a child ought not to have been so recklessly exposed even when the EDCC was pursuing justice for the victims of the reprehensible crimes,” HURIWA said in a statement signed by the National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko.

Victor, alongside four undergraduates, Chidebere Stanley Opara, Manasseh Sefa Ephraim, Chukwukere Obinna Paul, and Enyogu Etim Ekpo, were reportedly found guilty on separate one-count charges related to internet fraud.

HURIWA recalled a report stating that the convictions were secured by the Kaduna Zonal Command of the EFCC, and Justice Darius Khobo of the Kaduna State High Court presided over the sentencing.

The charges stemmed from a sting operation conducted in Kaduna, revealing the group’s elaborate scheme of creating false identities on various social networking sites to defraud unsuspecting victims, particularly foreigners.

Specifically, the seven-year-old was accused of cheating by impersonation, presenting himself as Christopher Anderson, a white man from Denver, Colorado, USA, on Facebook.

The fraudulent activities occurred between January and July 2023.

His conviction, under Section 57 of the Kaduna State Penal Code Law 2017, is punishable under Section 309 of the same Law.

Reacting to the media display of the photo of such a juvenile and the fact that he was actually prosecuted in the same criminal court as adult, HURIWA stated that the entire media exposure of such a very young boy is a clear manifestation that Nigeria is getting it wrong with the practice of democracy even as the Rights group quarried why the identity of that child was not made anonymous due to his very young age and for the fact that doing otherwise as EFCC has done by publicising his tiny image, has ruined his reputation all his life and could psychologically and emotionally traumatise the boys for a very long time. HURIWA recalled that in most legal jurisprudence and jurisdictions such as in the United Kingdom, juveniles and children alleged to have committed a crime are basically not exposed in the media and often the practice in UK is that even the name of the said child suspect is subject to public restrictions.

Relatedly, the EFCC has been cautioned to be circumspect in dealing with the combating of alleged cybercrimes by youngsters in the universities. HURIWA dismissed as hasty generalisation and an incurable fallacy, the recent statement by the anti-corruption agency’s X page, in which the EFCC boss disclosed that 7 out of ten undergraduates in Nigeria may be doing cybercrimes which the Chairman reportedly said while speaking recently with a delegation from Daar Communication PLC at EFCC headquarters in Jabi, Abuja.

HURIWA submitted that “this sort of stereotypes publicised by the EFCC for the consumption of the global followers of development in Africa, is absolutely unacceptable and has graphically profiled Nigerian students as criminals”. The rights group said the belated debunking of an unambiguous position on the students in Nigeria which was posted on the social media page of the anti-graft commission is offensive, odious and despicable and constituted a belated but poor afterthought on the part of the EFCC.

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