By Miriam Humbe
The United States Director of Narcotics and Law Enforcement in the Nigerian Embassy, Candace Spradley, has expressed delight with the efforts and successes of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC), in its crusade against economic and financial crimes and other acts of corruption, describing them as impressive.
Dele Oyewale, the EFCC’s Head of media & Publicity disclosed this in a statement signed on Thursday.
She made the observation in Abuja on Thursday, January 23, 2025 when she led a delegation of officials of Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL) on a courtesy visit to the Executive Chairman, EFCC, Mr. Ola Olukoyede at the Commission’s corporate headquarters, Abuja.
The American said: “I am so pleased to be with you here, today. We’ve come just to greet you. I’m quite new on my assignment. I’ve been in the country for about five months now.
“However, earlier on in my career with the Department of State, I learned about the EFCC and all of the very impressive work that you all have been doing to advance anti-corruption and financial crime efforts.
“So, I’ve known for a very long time about the work of your organization and it was part of the reason that I chose to come here because of the very strong and impressive cooperation from EFCC and similar government bodies in the U.S.
“I should just start by saying congratulations to you for the impressive work that the organization has done under your tenure and certainly the name that it has made for the government of Nigeria in Washington.
“It is an outstanding and impressive work that has a very far reach”.
She also sought stronger collaboration “on issues of cybercrime, asset forfeiture and recovery, and certainly on issues of anti-corruption and transparency which are top in mind for the US Embassy and a priority for our Ambassador here”.
Olukoyede who expressed appreciation on behalf of the staff and management of the EFCC, noted that there was a convergence in the mandate of the Commission and that of INL and appealed for synergy between the two organizations.
“The mandates that are set before you and ours are quite similar.
“There is a relationship between dealing in narcotics and money laundering.
“One of our key mandates is to fight money laundering and money laundering has presumably become one of the biggest financial crimes with global dimension.
“That is why it has become very imperative for the international community to come together and form synergy to fight these crimes. So it is important for us to work together”.
The EFCC’s boss further stated that the Commission had robust synergy with the American Embassy and FBI.
“We have a very strong partnership and we plan to build on that in the area of capacity building.
“The relationship has been of mutual benefits and we will continue to build on that,” he said.
Olukoyede also drew the attention of the delegation to the growing involvement of expatriates in internet fraud in Nigeria.
He lamented the trend and vowed that the country would be made inhospitable for such anti-social expatriates.
“You are aware of the recent international crime that was busted in Nigeria that involved close to 200 foreigners. You now know who has been perpetrating cybercrime in our system using the identity of Nigerians. That goes to show you that these crimes we are fighting have international dimensions to them.
“Investigations have revealed that some of these guys were dislodged from some parts of South Asia and they are now looking for a safe haven within the African Continent from where they would be attacking targets across the world.
“8Nigeria is not going to create that environment for them to survive. We will deploy intelligence-driven operations to get them out of our system”, he said.
