EFCC Arrests Five Suppliers of Suspected Adulterated Oil to a Multinational Company in Port Harcourt
Operatives of the Port Harcourt Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, have arrested five suppliers of suspected illegally- refined petroleum products to a multinational construction company in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
They were arrested on Wednesday September 1, 2021 at the premises of the company, around Rumuolumeni, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, while off-loading the suspected illegally – refined products.
The suspects are: Kelvin Ibe; Anslem Onyelosi; Kelly Omamogho, Jude Tochi and Kelvin Duru.
Reports showed that the suspects have been supplying adulterated products to the company, without being detected. However, surveillance by the EFCC led to the arrested.
The suspects were arrested alongside four (4) trucks with registration number; MBA 340 XA; XB 867 NGK, GWK 66XA and UMA 39 YW.
They will soon be charged to court as soon as investigation is concluded.
Lekki Now Hotbed of Cyber Crime – EFCC
*402 Suspects Arrested In Three Months
Lekki, the fast-developing upper middle class area of Lagos Metropolis, is emerging as the new hub of internet-related fraud. Data from the investigation activities of the Lagos Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for the second quarter of 2021, indicates that Lekki District is the preferred location for all manner of cyber fraud syndicates.
Between April and June, 2021, the Advance Fee Fraud and Cyber Crime Sections of the Command recorded a total of 402 internet-related fraud arrests. While the Advance Fee Fraud Section was responsible for 243 arrests, the Cyber Crime Section executed 18 sting operations which resulted in 159 arrests, from which 13 convictions have so far been recorded.
Of the 159 suspects arrested by the Cyber Crime Section, 70 are from Lekki, comprising communities such as Ajah, Badore, Victoria Garden City, Sangotedo and Oniru.
Ajah accounted for 24 suspects, while Oniru and Sangotedo had 14 and 13 suspects respectively. Badore had 8 suspects. Neighbouring Ikoyi and Eko Atlantic had 2 and one suspect each. Ikorodu and Alagbado on the Lagos Mainland make up the remainder.
The suspects are mostly millennials, with 82 of them aged between 25-34 years, which speaks to the fact that most of the individuals arrested are either still in school, recent graduates or university drop outs.
Analysis of the data from the Cyber Crime Section further shows that the dominant form of internet crime is Dating Scam/Online Dating Scam/Romance Scam. Sixty Four percent (64%) of individuals arrested are involved in romance scam, followed closely by “Middle Man Scam” and “Picking” which account for 8% and 7% respectively of those arrested.
The 64% involved in the dating scam benefitted to the tune of N8, 310,000; $349,290 USD; £ 900; €10 and Cryptocurrency 0.17513.
Other typologies of fraud identified include forgery, possession of fraudulent documents, spamming, credit card fraud, impersonation, rental scam, loan fraud, Business Email Compromise, Hacking, stealing, cheque scam, phishing, and money laundering.
The data also reveals gift cards, at 39%, as the prevalent method employed by the suspects to access their illicit funds. It is followed by bank transfers at 27% and Cryptocurrency at 21%.
A total of $12, 512.49USD was recovered from the e-wallet accounts of four suspects within the period.
Compliance with Extant Laws Essential for Public Accountability – Bawa
The Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa on Thursday September 2, 2021, advocated strict compliance with and enforcement of extant laws and regulations to promote public accountability and the fight against corruption in Nigeria.
The EFCC boss who spoke through the Commission’s Director, Public Affairs, Osita Nwajah at a roundtable on Accountability organized by the Premium Times Center for Investigative Journalism, PTCIJ, at the Orisun Art Source, Abuja, noted that “there is no better prevention tool than a vigorous enforcement regime, one that is applied across the board in strict adherence with extant laws, rules and regulations”.
He noted that while Nigerians were adept at comparing their system with those of other countries, those countries were not doing anything extraordinary other than enforcing their laws and regulations no matter who it is that has committed the infraction.
“A law or regulation is only as good as its enforcement. A society where enforcement is jaundiced or non-existent is inevitably sucked faster into the black hole of a failed society. We are plagued by the situation where the auto-response to any demand for accountability is to raise doubts as to the ‘real’ intentions underlying such a demand, adamant from the outset that it must be anything but altruistic!
“The question is, do we need more laws or regulations? I certainly think we need better, more responsive laws as veritable guardrails of our march to nationhood. But, whilst we are hard at work formulating those, the real question begging for answer is, how much of the functionality of available laws have we as Nigerians tested to hold both public officers and the public system they run accountable?”
Bawa said the EFCC has done more than any government agency in promoting the development of Law in Nigeria. “We make bold to say that no agency of government in Nigeria has done more to advance the development of the law in the last 18 years than the EFCC. This is because every day, across the length and breadth of this country, we are using the instrumentality of extant laws to hold public officials accountable.
“We have since inception been seeking accountability from our politicians of all hues and business of all shades; we have gone after bankers and public servants. And across the country, from the high courts all the way to the supreme courts, the dockets of courts are filled with EFCC cases,” he said.
Bawa called on the media and the Nigerian citizens to join hands in ridding Nigeria of all form of economic and financial crimes. “There is a special role for the media to call out any individual or agency of government that is not keen on enforcement or that has warped sense of it. It is my conviction that when we all join hands together in this way, we would have taken a very significant step towards achieving the Nigeria of our dreams.”
In his address, the Executive Director, Premium Times Center for Investigative journalism, Dapo Olorunyomi commended the participants and highlighted the reasons for organizing the roundtable. “The idea around the roundtable is to… have the media in the first place, understands what our legal obligations are in a democracy, and secondly it is also to help we ourselves as a newspaper to give consequence and meaning to that accountability metrics.”
The roundtable tagged “Udeme Accountability Roundtable: Strategic Partnership for Accountability in Nigeria” had in attendance, participants from various anti-corruption agencies and civil society organizations.
