Acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Ibrahim Magu has said that Nigeria must pay greater attention to cyber crime because of its effect on the image and economic health of the nation.
Magu decried the fact that the involvement of unscrupulous Nigerians in cyber fraud was impacting negatively on the country’s image globally and undermining the quest for foreign direct investment, noting: “Every email sent from Nigeria is being screened before delivery, we are being denied visas to other countries,”
A press statement by the EFCC spokesperson Wilson Uwujaren, Thursday in Abuja, said the EFCC boss spoke through the head of the Gombe office of the commission Micheal Wetkast at a media briefing cum town hall meeting in Gombe.
He said the acting chairman, however, expressed optimism that the commission’s ongoing collaboration with FBI and other international law enforcement agencies would be sustained as a major step towards addressing the menace of computer-based fraud.
He said stakeholders at the town hall meeting commended the commission’s intervention which has helped to reduce the incidences of fraud and malpractices in the implementation of the CBN Anchor Borrowers Scheme.
The commission recently arrested a syndicate which specialized in adulterating fertilizer with sand and selling same to innocent farmers as genuine.
Meanwhile, folowing intelligence received from a sister law enforcement agency, the South East Zonal office of the EFCC, Thursday, arrested three promoters and staff of Millionaires African Leaders Club, a Ponzi scheme operating from No. 79, Nike Road, Abakpa Nike, Enugu, Enugu state.
Uwujaren said the coordinator of the organisation Nwonu Priscilla Chika told her interrogators that the club operates a collaborative contribution scheme, mostly transacted in cash on two class basis : first class and business class. Both attracts registration fees and monthly contribution of N3,000 and N25,000; and N2,000 and N12,500 respectively.c
According to Nwonu, who claimed that that the scheme’s corporate headquarters is at Nsukka with t one Princess Benny as chief executive, said the Enugu office commenced operations barely two months ago and that the scheme promises their “investors” 50% return on the sum invested.
He said the suspect could not confirm the registration of the ” firm” with the regulatory bodies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, and the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.
