Stakeholders lament rising financial crime, urge security agencies to close ranks

The Chairman of the Police Service Commission, Solomon Arase, has called on all security agencies to close ranks in order to tackle the endemic financial crime in the nation.

Arase, who also queried the institutional capacity of the national security and intelligence community to professionally detect, prevent and deploy modern investigative tools towards dissecting the criminal signatures of fraudsters, said attainment of an enhanced technical, intellectual and professional capacity was needed to understand the complex trails of financial crimes.

Arase, a former Inspector General of Police, said this at annual lecture and award ceremony of the Crime Reporters Association of Nigeria (CRAN) in Lagos last week.

Arase stressed the need for all security agencies to equip themselves with requisite capacity that would enable them to identify pieces of technically-aided evidence of prosecutorial value that could engender the successful prosecution of criminals.

Represented by the Assistant Inspector General of Police Force Criminal Intelligence and Investigation Department (FCIID), Lagos annex, AIG Idowu Owohunwa, Arase said, ” The questions here, however, are –  do the national security and intelligence community have the institutional capacity to professionally detect, prevent, and deploy modern investigative tools towards dissecting the criminal signatures of these fraudsters, and identifying pieces of technically-aided evidence of prosecutorial value that could engender the successful prosecution of the criminals?

“Also, have the nation’s security institutions built strong inter-agency synergy that could stimulate a coordinated and symbiotic approach in dealing with this threat including maximizing the tools of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU)?

Arase called for pathways to bridging the capacity gap of the security agencies in relation to understanding the complex dynamics and highly technical field of financial crimes.

He also suggested closing the capacity gap of security agencies in unraveling the constantly advancing modus operandi, trends, and patterns of financial crime networks with the view to bringing culprits justice, among others.

The guest lecturer, Bone Efoziem, said financial crime in Nigeria had become endemic, urging the youth to re-channel their energy to hard work.

Efoziem, who presented a paper on Financial Crimes and National Security, said, situations in Nigeria was not as bad as being portrayed to the outside world on social media, adding that there should be a collective efforts in addressing the security situation in the country.

“There should be a collective efforts in addressing the security situation in the country. It must be noted that all crimes and criminality are local” he added.

The security expert and Managing Director, Strict Guard Security Limited, advised every Nigerian to be ready to support the security agencies by providing information since the operatives were not magicians.

The acting Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Police Command, represented by ACP Saheed Kazeem. thanked the organisers of the event and congratulated the award recipients.

Kazeem advised the recipients to allow the awards to spur them towards more services to the nation.

Earlier, in his welcome remarks, the President of CRAN, Lekan Olabulo, frowned at the rate at which crime is increasingly committed in public space.

Olabulo criticised corrupt public office holders, noting that those involved in stealing the commonwealth of the nation should remember that they are not insulated from being probed.

The President of CRAN, disclosed that the annual lecture and award series, which started about 30 years ago, had become a veritable platforms through which suggestions are made on how best relevant agencies and other stakeholders could tackle the menace of insecurity, bedevilling the nation.

“In spite of the existence of laws to check crime in Nigeria, more youths are enlisting in the Yahoo Yahoo business with such conviction that what they are doing is illegal.

“Yahoo, Yahoo or  cybercrime has come to be generally accepted by most parents as if it is a legitimate business and many communities are now in competition over the number of youths who have acquired humongous wealth through Yahoo, Yahoo”, CRAN President said.

Olabulo hinted that the annual lecture cum.award series started about 30 years ago has become veritable platforms through which suggestions are made on how best the relevant agencies and other stakeholders could tackle the menace of insecurity, bedevilling the nation.