By Yemi Akinsuyi
The Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ola Olukoyede on Friday, September 20, 2024 handed over €5100 (Five Thousand, One Hundred Euros) proceeds of crime to the Spanish Ambassador to Nigeria, His Excellency, Juan Ignacio Sell.
The sum was recovered from a Nigerian romance fraudster for Heinz Burchard Einhaus Uchtmann, a Spanish victim by the EFCC in collaboration with the Spanish Police.
While handing over the deed of release on behalf of the Nigerian government, the EFCC boss expressed appreciation to the Spanish counterpart for its support to Nigeria over the years, noting that the asset recovery and handover lent evidence to the cordial relationship and collaboration between both countries and their law enforcement agencies.
“I would like to thank you for all the support over the years on behalf of your country that you have been giving to Nigeria and also for finding Nigeria a conducive place to carry out your diplomatic work and encouraging investors from Spain to come to Nigeria and invest. On our part as a law enforcement agency, the event here today is a testament of the collaboration between Nigeria and Spain and also between the law enforcement agencies in Nigeria and those in Spain,” he said.
While noting that the borderless nature of internet crimes has made collaboration and partnership among countries and law enforcement compelling, he stated the resolve of the EFCC to make the country unconducive for the corrupt and the fraudulent.
“It has become very imperative for us to understand that financial crimes have become a borderless crime. Sometimes you will discover that they operate from a different country and get their victims in another country and the proceeds of crime go to a different country. On our path, we are resolute to ensure that Nigeria is not made a safe haven for financial criminals and corrupt people. We do it to cleanse our system in collaboration with our partners across the world.
“We are much more ready to continue to do that. In the interest of both countries we must do what we have to do. There must be mutual trust, mutual support for us to ensure that we cleanse the global financial ecosystem from being destroyed,” he said.
According to the EFCC boss, the resources criminals control across the world outstrip the wealth in the technology industry, adding that “That is why it has become imperative for all governments across the world to come together much more than ever before to collaborate in order to sanitize the global financial ecosystem and ensure that the activities of these criminals do not thrive. And that was what informed our determination in ensuring that anybody who perpetrates whatever is called romance scam or sextortion would not get away with it”.
Speaking further, Olukoyede stated that “With the investigation in this romance scam, we were able to make some recoveries for one of your citizens, Heinz Burchard Einhaus Uchtmann who became a victim of romance scam. And we are happy to inform you that we have been able to recover €5100 (Five Thousand, One Hundred Euros) for him and we have evidence that the money has also been transferred to him. So what we are doing here today is just to formalize the transfer of the proceeds of crime and to ensure that we strengthen our collaboration and relationship and even take it to a higher level. I want to let you know that what we are doing here is on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria, which has given us the mandate to do this work.”
A happy Ambassador Sell in his response, lauded the collaboration between the EFCC and Spanish Police and pledged the commitment of the Spanish government to strengthen and take it higher.
“Many times you work on processes and you will never see the end result of your endeavours but what has made this special is the fact that we have seen the results of the efforts of the collaboration of two countries that are friends for the benefit of the citizens. Indeed this is a joyful moment for all of us: those who were involved in the investigation and those who supervised it and made it happen,” he said.
Similarly, Sell noted that “International crimes call very clearly for stronger collaboration between agencies and between countries. I am a witness that this is happening between Nigeria and Spain and specifically between the EFCC and Spanish Police. Beyond the operational collaboration you have with our police, we will also look at other avenues of collaboration in training and exchange of information.
“We are more than willing and more than ready to increase that cooperation between the EFCC and its sister institutions in Spain. So let us congratulate ourselves for what we are witnessing today. I am happy for the victim. Romance scams are particularly heinous in the sense that they thrive on the goodwill and good heart of the victims.”
Witnessing the event were top management staff of the EFCC and a delegation of Spanish Police Attache from the Spanish Embassy.
