University, EFCC in Partnership to Curb Cybercrime on Campus

University, EFCC in Partnership to Curb Cybercrime on Campus

The management of the University of Ibadan, UI, Oyo State has promised to partner with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, in its campaign against criminal tendencies among students of tertiary institutions across Nigeria.

The Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof. Abel Idowu Olayinka, gave the institution’s commitment on April 11, 2019, when the Zonal Head of the EFCC’s Ibadan office, Friday Ebelo, led officers of the Commission to pay him a courtesy visit.

Describing the EFCC’s mandate of waging war against all forms of economic and financial crimes as “a difficult national assignment”, the UI helmsman noted that the nation’s foremost anti-graft agency deserves the support of everyone.

Worried by the rising cases of involvement of young undergraduates in financial crimes, the EFCC had written to seek partnership with the premier university in mapping out strategies to stem the trend, especially in institutions of higher learning.

In recent times, the Commission had secured arrests and convictions of a number of young men engaged in financial crimes of different kinds. Most of them, according to records, are either undergraduates or fresh graduates of higher institutions of learning.

“The nature of arrests and convictions our Commission secures in recent times, in which a large number of culprits are youth who are supposedly our hope and future as a nation, has made it more pressing for us to engage our higher institutions of learning in thinking out strategies to stem the disturbing trend.

“As the premier university of our dear country, we believe it will be of great significance to start this campaign with a visit to the leadership of this leading ivory tower,” the Commission stated in a letter written to the university to initiate the partnership.

While declaring the essence of his team’s visit, Ebelo told the university management that the time had come for the agency to foster strategic partnership with major stakeholders in the management of youths with a view to dissuade them from going into crimes, adding that higher institutions’ administrations have critical roles to play.

He requested the university to avail the Commission the avenue to meet with the students of the institution to educate them on the dire consequences of crime and criminal activities on the lives of the perpetrators and the nation as an entity.

While responding to the demand, Prof. Olayinka described the two institutions as brothers, having been designated as agencies of the federal government of Nigeria.

“We are brothers. We are both agencies of the federal government created to carry out special functions for the growth and smooth running of our dear nation,” he said.

He pledged the readiness of the university to partner with the EFCC in all possible ways, saying “the partnership will bring about a win-win situation for both, and secure a better future for the country.”

He added that the university will give the EFCC a slot in its radio station, Diamond 101.1 FM, to be used to inform the university community on its mandate and educate them on issues bothering on economic and financial crimes and the consequences.

He also said the university will create a space for the Commission in its forthcoming orientation programmes for the new intakes and see to how this will be a permanent feature in the annual exercise.

Tony Orilade
Ag. Head, Media & Publicity
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Businessman Remanded in Prison Over N4.6m Fraud

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Kaduna Zonal Office has arraigned one Tasiu Abubakar before Justice Mohammed Tukur of the state’s High Court sitting in Kaduna on a three-count charge bordering on criminal breach of trust to the tune of N 4,645,500 (Four Million Six Hundred and Forty-Five Thousand Five Hundred Naira).

Tasiu’s problem began when one Abdulrazak Yusuf petitioned the EFCC alleging that the defendant told him that he had an allocation from the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Kaduna Depot in regard to CCC Construction Nigeria Limited and the complainant should pay for the allocation and the product will be loaded in a week time.

The complainant deposited the sum of N4,645,500 into Tasiu’s bank account, for the purpose of lifting the said product at the NNPC Depot, Kaduna.

He further alleged that the suspect subsequently gave him a bank teller and payment receipt as evidences of the payment, but on reaching the NNPC account office in Kaduna depot it was discovered that there was no such payment in their system.

Count one reads: “That you, Tasiu Abubakar, sometime in April 2018 in Kaduna within the Judicial Division of the High Court with intent to defraud obtained the sum of N4,645,500 from Yusuf Abdulrazak under the false pretence that you have allocation for Bitumen from NNPC Kaduna depot, a pretence you knew to be false and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 1(1) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offence Act 2006 and Punishable under Section 1(3) of the Same Act.”

He pleaded “not guilty” to the charge when it was read to him.

Prosecuting counsel, Onyeka Ekweozor, therefore urged the court to fix a date for commencement of trial while the defendant be remanded in prison pending trial.

Defence counsel, A.H. Maigauta, however, prayed the Court to grant his client bail.

Justice Tukur in his ruling ordered the defendant to be remanded in prison pending the perfection of bail application while fixing June 26, 2019 for trial.

Tony Orilade
Head, Media & Publicity