By Kolawole Ojebisi
The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, has condemned what he called the importation of arms into the country by foreign fraud syndicates who are using cryptocurrency as mode of payment.
The EFCC boss said organised fraud syndicates are establishing criminal cells in Nigerian cities and recruiting young people.
He disclosed that some of the foreigners arrested over fraud in Nigeria were convicts and ex-convicts in their countries.
According to a statement on Wednesday by the EFCC’s Head of Media and Publicity, Dele Oyewale, Olukoyede made these remarks while receiving participants of the Executive Intelligence Management Course from the National Institute for Security Studies, led by its Director of Studies, Hyginus Ngele.
“Another dimension that is not given attention is the discovery, recently, that organised foreign fraud syndicates are establishing cells in Nigerian cities and recruiting young Nigerians into serious organized cybercrimes, including cryptocurrency fraud,” Olukoyede said.
“In the special operations we carried out in Lagos recently, we arrested 194 foreigners in the heart of Victoria Island. Among them were Chinese, Filipinos, Eastern Europeans, Tunisians, and others, all in a single building. Some lacked valid visas, and most of their financial activities were conducted through cryptocurrency,” he revealed.
Additionally, Olukoyede noted that some of the arrested foreigners were ex-convicts in their home countries who had escaped prosecution and sought refuge in Nigeria and other African nations.
