…….As Enugu govt condemns random arrest of people carrying laptops
Economic and Financial Crime Commission,EFCC, Thursday, marked the 2025 African Anti-Corruption Day in Enugu, enlightening members of the public on Virtual assets and investment scam , urging investing public to beware of fraudsters floating various schemes to defraud Nigerians.
In the same vein, Enugu state government has condemned random arrest of people carrying laptops by EFCC operatives across the country, saying the world has gone digital and in Enugu state they are running e-governance processes and in months to come millions of laptops will be procured for Smart Green schools ,where every child will have a laptop and arrest of innocent people will be unnecessary because everybody will be arrested( not that there are no fraudulent people, innocent people should not be arrested)
Speaking at a Public lecture held at the International Conference Centre, Enugu, to mark the Day , the chairman of EFCC, Ola Olukoyede who spoke on the theme “Understanding Virtual Assets and investment Scam, ” observed that scourge of corruption and illicit financial flows is a challenge to African development with the annual losses running into billions of dollars.from diverse criminal activities with money laundering ranking as the highest.
Represented by the South East Zonal Director, ACEI, Aisha Abubakar, Olukoyede , said , virtual assets and investment scam is another rising criminal engagement that has the potential to outpace money laundering in Africa.
He said ” Virtual assets are digital representations of monetary values which operate on block chain and which can be traded, exchanged, transferred for payment or investment purposes. They are crypto currencies, digital tokens operating on ledger technology.
Pix: Deputy Governor Ossai(4th Left)
Olukoyede however explained that Virtual assets are not fundamentally criminal.He said it is when they are wrongfully or fraudulently used that they become criminal.
He explained that the advent of virtual assets was a response to one of the qualities of money as a store of value and fraudsters evolved ways of perverting their genuine purposes.
The chairman said fraudulent politicians were already perfecting schemes and hiding their loot in cryptocurrency to beat the investigative dragnets of anti-corruption agencies. “Stolen funds and unexplained wealth are being warehoused in wallets and payments for services are being done through this window. Investment schemes are also being facilitated through it,” he said.
The chairman said virtual assets and investment fraud are preventable like other fraudulent activities. “The escape route is adequate knowledge and understanding of issues involved”. He stressed that “no investment scam succeed without the negligence of investors”.
In his speech, the Deputy Governor of Enugu state Ifeanyi Ossai reminded the EFCC that the world has gone digital and many people will be moving about with laptops and they should not be arresting anyone seen with laptops except suspected fraudsters
On corruption and some politicians being corrupt, Ossai said , good governance is essential to curb corruption.
“There is no part of the world that people are not corrupt. There is no part of the world that people are not trying to breech the process. but for all those who swore to protect their wards, they have all obligations than duty to just do that .
“As law enforcement officers and as politicians we are ,we must work together to ensure that people do the right thing at all times “.
Responding to the EFCC chairman ‘s call for Institutional support, the Deputy Governor said, “We must work together to ensure that our judicial system will encourage others to do good. If a human being is subjected to an extremely abysmal relationship to be in cells before they are taken for trials ,what if at the end of the trials he is found to be the innocent, what do you do?
” Almost all our police cells are instruments of constructive duress. When you say that policemen are corrupt if you offer him a bag of five hundred dollars, it will be difficult for him to resist it , he needs stronger will to resist it.The way our present cells are even an innocent person would like to offer bribe to the DPO not to sleep over night
He told the chairman that some EFCC staff arrest people to extort money from them.He pointed out that good governance is critical in curbing corruption.
Ossai condemned the activities of some EFCC staff who arrest people carrying laptops randomly, saying ,they will see more laptops in Enugu because the state government had gone digital.
“in Enugu state,we are investing heavily in Smart Green schools, We are digitizing our system. We are having e- governance processes . We are making it robust so that investors can communicate with us. We have our Smart Green schools we are investing heavily on our Smart Green schools with AI laboratories., with electronic learning systems. But you EFCC go about arresting people because they are having laptops, randomly.. Laptops are replacing notebooks in classrooms .
As a government,we are importing millions of laptops for our Smart Green schools In the next few years every child in Enugu wil have laptop because we are procuring many laptops, if you will arrest people with laptop, it means you will arrest all of us. This is important. Am not saying that people are not committing electronic and virtual crime. So, RFCC , you must deal with that.” he said.
Reacting on fradulent politicians being involved in virtual assets and investment, the Deputy Governor said,
“When you spoke about fraudulent politicians who will embezzle money. , yes, I agree. There are fraudulent EFCC people who made arrest to extort money from the people. There are fraudulent Policemen, there are fraudulent soldiers , there are fraudulent Road Safety .even fraudulent traditional rulers who sell lands that belong to other people . Good governance is essentially at the root of curbing corruption”, he said..
He called for investments on criminal justice system so that prople could be protected and be free to give out information.
“We must invest in our criminal justice system. People are afraid to offer information because they feel they will not be protected..
So,we must do more by investigating, crimes gathering evidences and willing and ready to go for prosecution to prosecute those people
He suggested to EFCC to create a national programme where they will honour and celebrate those who served with integrity, who had served without blemish , so that people will see and say there is need to serve with integrity.
On virtual assets, he advised “when you try to make a distinction between digital asset and virtual assets, from the perspective of intellectual property, little research is needed in this country,
“It is for regulators to be ahead of technology..Technology cannot wait for regulators.. Technology is dynamic and keep evolving ,” Ossai said.
Traditional rulers, Youths, women groups and other stakeholders who spoke at the event urged EFCC to involve community leaders, intellectuals and other stakeholders in the fight against corruption. They also urged them to look into the activities of their staff who extort innocent people.
Highlights of the event were cultural dance display and drama.
Author: Maureen Ikpeama