The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has submitted that illegal mining activities have posed a great threat to the nation’s economic prosperity and State of Harmony’s economic development.
Acting Executive Chairman of the anti-graft agency, Mr. Abdulkarim Chukkol, has also called the media ‘a strategic partner’ in the fight against illegal mining and fraud in Kwara state.
Team@orientactualmags.com learned that Abdulkarim , who said this on Thursday during the one-day media training/workshop organized by the anti-graft body for the print, electronics and online journalists in Ilorin, the Kwara state capital, added that cybercrime ‘is a major crime, particularly, among undergraduates and fresh graduates of tertiary institutions’ , citing presence of a good number of academic institutions in the state.
The workshop had as its theme ‘Effective Reporting of Economic and Financial Crimes’.
Represented by Mr. Michaels Nzekwe, who heads the Ilorin zonal office, the commission said the activities of illegal solid mineral operators have posed a great threat to the local and national economies, through non-payment of royalties, taxes and other dues.
‘The commission has been active in tackling illegal mining and will continue to ensure that extant laws against illegal miners are enforced’ he said.
The EFCC boss, who urged Nigerians not to show indifference until they suffer loss as a result of being victims of fraud before moving against corrupt practices, added that, ‘economic and financial crimes remain a threat to our individual and corporate progress’.
‘It is not only by being a victim of these crimes that we suffer losses. We also suffer limitations when our neighbours, colleagues, institutions and nation fall prey to them’ he added.
He urged journalists to attach importance to patriotism, saying ‘as journalists, we owe our nation and the entire world an obligation to expose every shadiness and criminal act through our reporting.
Journalism is the best gateway to whistle blowing and I urge the media to deploy more time, energy and commitment to exposing all fraudulent activities in our midst’ he added.
In one of the presentations, titled, “New trends in cybercrime: how not to become a victim’ by Alex Ocheme of the EFCC, the commission disclosed that cybercrime had eaten over $8 trillion of victims’ hard -earned money in the world.
He, however, said legal bottleneck ‘is one of the factors hindering cross -border corruption and investigation in the anti-corruption war.
Ocheme also noted that not all African countries, have passed the law on cybercrime, adding that since one cannot compel those countries to try corruption offenders using such a law, it means that, ‘the money stolen is gone’.
‘Each nation is entitled to its laws. They are not necessarily there to work with you. Some countries are fast to assist you in the war against cybercrime while some are not. For instance, if the UAE is not ready to collaborate with you on a cybercrime investigation, it means the money lost is gone’ he said-Team@orientactualmags.com
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