Posted by Independent on
Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, on Saturday, said Nigeria's neighbouring countries have become the new haven for Nigerian fraudsters fleeing from the heat of the commission.
Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, on Saturday, said Nigeria's neighbouring countries have become the new haven for Nigerian fraudsters fleeing from the heat of the commission.
Ribadu, who declared open a two-day international conference on Advance Fee Fraud, in Abuja, identified Benin Republic, Togo, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Senegal and others as the new bases of operations, by Nigerian fraudsters, while some are said to be operating outside the sub-region in South Africa, United Kingdom, Spain, Holland, US and Canada.
Said he, " the relentless war and hostile internal environment compelled the scammers to relocate to neighbouring West African countries by the end of 2003. The bigger ones left for South Africa, United Kingdom, Spain, Holland, USA and Canada.
Ribadu lamented that, the fraudsters took advantage of the new ECOWAS travel protocol to relocate and continue their nefarious activities with ease, among others, saying, " two main factors aided this emigrational pattern, the free travel protocol, which was granted by the ECOWAS treaty, as well as the increasingly developed IT infrastructure in the sub-region.
He further lamented the lack of political will and incentives to discourage this phenomenon by the host countries, because of the fact that, " these fraudulent schemes preyed on foreign victims.
" To be sure this factors originally provided little incentive to do anything about the scammers, whose boiler rooms were growing by the day in other ECOWAS nations, that had now become particularly attractive to the scammers, such as Togo, Benin, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Senegal and Coit D'Ivoire, among others" Ribadu added.