Date Published: 03/31/10

……..YET THEY SAID SHE IS NOT WORKING By Kabira Yusuf

Mrs. Farida Waziri, a retired Police AIG was sworn in as the Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC in June, 2008.  Her profile and remarkable achievements during her days as the Head of the Fraud Management Unit of Alagbon Police Division were part of what President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua considered before appointing her as the head of the most vibrant anti graft agency in Nigeria .  

In the area of prosecution, Mrs. Waziri investigated and filed several fresh high profile cases which include cases of former Governors and former Ministers.  Some of these high profile cases have been those of Michael Botmang, Boni Haruna and Rasheed Ladoja etc. Following these, were the arrest of Femi Fani-Kayode, Babalola Borishade, Roland Iyayi and their Austrian accomplice, Eider George who were all docked for Aviation safe tower project scam.

Others are  Kenny Martins, Prince Ibrahim Demuje, of the defunt Police Equipment Foundation, Nyeson Wike, Chief of Staff to the Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amechi and  4 Senior Managers of Zenith Bank. Iyabo Obasanjo a serving Senator and the former Health Minister, Adenike Grange were also docked for a 300 million naira unspent budget fraud at the Ministry of Health.

A  Billionaire Indian Businessman, Patrick Fernandez was docked in Lagos for allegedly defrauding some banks to the tune of 32 billion naira, 13 Phillipinos who were arraigned for oil bunkering and sentenced to 65 years. Some 6 Ghanaians and a Nigerian were also arraigned for oil bunkering. The case of Nasir El-Rufai has also been filed and the Commission will soon commence the process of his extradition. Others include suspended Ransome Owan and six Commissioners of Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC and the Rural Electrification Agency, REA case involving a serving Senator, three Reps members, Perm Sec. and other top officials of REA. The Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC also felt the heat as five of its top officials and a Lebanese contractor were docked.

Tom Iseghohi and two other top officials of Transcorp Inc. have also been arraigned in court over a fraud of N15billion. Also on the Commission’s prosecuting list are: Chief Joe Musa, the Director General of the National Gallery of Art along with four others arraigned on  a  12 count charge of  criminal misappropriation, criminal conversion of public funds ,falsification of account, and illegal opening of account. Equally arraigned are five suspended top officials of Oceanic bank, Intercontinental bank, Fin Bank, Union Bank and Afribank.

The EFCC did not stop there as it extended its tentacles to the academic circle with the arrest and arraignment of Professor Innocent Chuka Okonkwo, Vice Chancellor of Imo State University and two principal officers of the University, Uchechi Adaeze Nwugo and Wilfred Uwakwe, the university bursar. They were arraigned on a 14 count charge of misappropriation of fund, criminal breach of trust, abuse of office and conspiring among themselves to defraud the university to the tune of N145 million.

 In terms of conviction, EFCC obtained over 75 convictions since Waziri assumed the headship of the Commission. One very celebrated one was the Bode George saga who was handed a two year jail term by a Federal High Court in Lagos.

The EFCC under Waziri has been able to recover funds worth over N150 billion naira and properties worth Billions of naira.  In the area of cyber crime, the EFCC under Mrs. Waziri, apart from raiding suspected cyber cafes which used to be the trend in the past, has developed and deployed Eagle Claw, a software that will change the face of fighting cybercrime and 419 in Nigeria . 

Project EagleClaw is an electronic device that sniffs out all fraudulent e-mails and monitors them with the option of shutting down such mails and tracing them to their origins. This means that when fully deployed, all 419 e-mails emanating from Nigeria will either be monitored or be shut down. This yielded a positive result recently with the first arrest of a five man cyber crime syndicate.  

The expired MoU with Microsoft was renegotiated in order to cover a wider spectrum of issues.  To further enhance this, Mrs. Waziri in conjuction with Microsoft, brought together a coalition of parties involving the African Development Bank, Western Union , Yahoo! Google, Coca-Cola, etc to support the fight against Internet Fraud.  The result of the EFCC Microsoft partnership was the production of a musical CD titled “MAGA NO NEED PAY”. The main message contained in that music was the need to shun cyber crimes and live a crime free life.

Did I hear you say it is not enough to praise the Commission? Ok what about this which formed the basis for which I am writing this article.  Recently, a report has it that fraudsters are fleeing the country. The report which was captured by PC World, an international news website about technology, based in the United States of America , USA and the United Kingdom , UK revealed how the EFCC tackled the menace of cyber crime which has soiled the country’s image for sometimes now.

The report has it that internet scammers are now leaving Nigeria and relocating to neighboring African countries due to the unfriendly atmosphere created by the country’s most prolific anti graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

It is also interesting to note that although the claim is that most of the internet scam cases emanates from Africa, but a 2009 report from the Internet Crime Complaints Center, said that only 10 percent of victim complaints emanates from Africa, with the USA and the UK comprising more than 75 percent of the total.

The EFCC Eagle Claw is by all means achieving results as internet scammers are now being traced electronically. All scam mails emanating from scammers can now be traced to its origin. The Commission is also doing its best to ensure that victims get their money back.  Just recently media reports from Australia disclosed how a Queensland woman in Australia got a restitution of $40,000 which she lost to scammers courtesy of the EFCC.

Now, is EFCC still not doing anything?

Kabira Yusuf, Abuja