The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission chairman, Ola Olukoyede, says organised foreign fraud syndicates are establishing cells in Nigerian cities and recruiting youths into serious organised cybercrimes, including cryptocurrency fraud.

EFCC Spokesperson Dele Oyewale said this in a statement on Thursday in Abuja.

He explained that Mr Olukoyede said this while receiving participants of the Executive Intelligence Management Course 18 of the National Institute for Security Studies on Wednesday in Abuja.

He said the team was led by the institute’s director of studies, Hyginus Ngele, to EFCC.

Mr Olukoyede expressed surprise at how bandits and insurgents were able to sustain their activities in the country over the years.

He noted with concern the rate of flow of small arms and light weapons across the borders and the involvement of non-state actors in the illegal exploitation of minerals in parts of the country.

The EFCC boss said all these activities compounded the threats in the security landscape.

“Another dimension that is not given attention is the discovery, recently, that organised foreign fraud syndicates are establishing cells in Nigerian cities.

”They are recruiting young Nigerians into serious organised cybercrimes, including cryptocurrency fraud.

”By virtue of the EFCC’s recent discovery, we are beginning to see the likelihood and the propensity that a lot of these people are into illegal importation of arms into the country using cryptocurrency as a means of payment,” Mr Olukoyede said.

According to him, this is an area that must interest all of us.

“In the special operations we carried out in Lagos recently, we arrested 194 foreigners in the heart of Victoria Island.

”They comprised Chinese, Filipinos, Eastern Europeans, Tunisians, and others in one building at a time. You can imagine what these guys are doing—194 of them.

”Some of them don’t even have valid visas, and most of the financial activities they carried out were through cryptocurrency,” he added.

He said the commission also discovered that some of the foreigners arrested were already ex-convicts in their countries.

”Some of them have been convicted and escaped from their countries and found safe haven in Africa, not only Nigeria. We discovered that they are also developing cells in some other African countries by virtue of the investigation we are carrying out,” he said.

The EFCC boss called for spirited efforts at both national and continental levels to combat the menace of internet fraud.

He stressed that the money laundering and national security dimension of the presence of foreign organised crime groups demanded close scrutiny.

“All security, intelligence, and law enforcement organisations in Nigeria and indeed Africa must close ranks in dealing with this challenge,” he said.

Earlier, the NISS commandant, Joseph Odama, who spoke through Mr Ngele, praised Mr Olukoyede’s leadership of the EFCC for the commission’s “remarkable achievements in combating corruption, money laundering, and other financial crimes.”

He noted that the achievements had strengthened Nigeria’s integrity and served as a model for other nations in Africa and beyond.

He said the EFCC, under Mr Olukoyede, had been at the forefront of investigating and prosecuting financial crimes, including those involving non-state actors.

(NAN)