The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has secured 65 court convictions of financial fraudsters from January to December 15 in Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara states.

The Sokoto Zonal Commander, Mr Aliyu Yunusa, disclosed this to journalists during the end of year get together organised by the commission to celebrate its successes on Friday in Sokoto.

Mr Yunusa said the zonal command surpassed its target of 50 convictions and attributed the successes to staff dedication, support from sister organisations, community-based organisations and individuals.

He highlighted that the most prevalent cases recorded included impersonations involving using other persons’ National Identification Number in proxy, receiving stolen monies, cloning of Automated Teller Machine cards for third party money withdrawal and defrauding individuals through false pretences.

“Most important celebration is that we stopped various crimes, discovered numerous frauds and recovered funds from fraudsters within the year.

“The get-together was to encourage the workers by showcasing the achievements and challenges with hope to improve in the coming year,” Mr Yunusa said.

According to him, the zonal office is faced with manpower challenges and staff training on specialised cybercrimes as fraudsters use modern ways of swindling people.

“When incident happened, we look at it with forensic eye to block the loopholes and fast track investigations, thereby more sophistication is needed,” the commander added.

He reiterated that the commission would continue to work with zero corruption tolerance clubs in schools, NYSC, community development clubs and other community-based organisations to fight crimes at all levels.

He commended Journalists for their support to the command and enjoined them to redouble efforts on sensitisation to all forms of frauds and EFCC activities, to target stopping illicit financial dealings.

The event was attended by heads of federal and state agencies including community groups.

(NAN)