Ola Olukoyede, Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has cautioned Nigerians against investing in schemes promising incredible gains with no risk.
He gave the advice during a high-powered public sensitisation in Enugu to mark the 2025 African Anti-Corruption Day.
Olukoyede who spoke on the theme: “Understanding Virtual Assets and Investment Scam,” observed that the scourge of corruption and illicit financial flows was a challenge to African development with the annual losses running into billions of dollars from diverse criminal activities with money laundering ranking as the highest.
Olukoyede, represented by the South East Zonal Director of the EFCC, Aisha Abubakar, said virtual assets and investment scam was another rising criminal engagement that had the potential to outpace money laundering in Africa.
He said that Africa had become a hub for corruption-related challenges, including the proliferation of illicit funds and rising cases of money laundering, noting hat virtual assets—such as cryptocurrencies, digital tokens, and game currencies—while beneficial, are largely unregulated and prone to abuse.
He said, “virtual assets are digital representations of monetary values which operate on block chain and which can be traded, exchanged, transferred for payment or investment purposes. They are crypto currencies, digital tokens operating on ledger technology.
Olukoyede however explained that virtual assets are not fundamentally crime but it becomes a crime when fraudulently used.
He explained that the advent of virtual assets was a response to one of the qualities of money as a store of value and fraudsters evolved ways of perverting their genuine purposes.
The chairman alleged that some politicians were already perfecting schemes and hiding their loot in cryptocurrency to beat the investigative dragnets of anti-corruption agencies. “Stolen funds and unexplained wealth are being warehoused in wallets and payments for services are being done through this window. Investment schemes are also being facilitated through it,” he said.
The chairman said virtual assets and investment fraud was preventable like other fraudulent activities. “The escape route is adequate knowledge and understanding of issues involved”. He stressed that “no investment scam succeed without the negligence of investors”.
In his speech, the Deputy Governor of Enugu State, Mr. Ifeanyi Ossai, appealed to the commission against random arrest of youths by mere possession of laptops as the world and technology are evolving.
On the allegations of some politicians being corrupt, Ossai said, good governance was essential to curb corruption.
“There is no part of the world that people are not corrupt. There is no part of the world that people are not trying to breech the process but for all those who swore to protect their wards, they have all obligations than duty to just do that.
“As law enforcement officers and as politicians we are, we must work together to ensure that people do the right thing at all times.”
Responding to the EFCC chairman’s call for institutional support, the Deputy Governor said, “We must work together to ensure that our judicial system will encourage others to do good. If a human being is subjected to an extremely abysmal relationship to be in cells before they are taken for trials, what if at the end of the trials he is found to be the innocent, what do you do?
“Almost all our police in cells are instruments of constructive duress. When you say that policemen are corrupt if you offer him a bag of five hundred dollars, it will be difficult for him to resist it, he needs stronger will to resist it.The way our present cells are, even an innocent person would like to offer bribe to the DPO not to sleep over night
He told the chairman that some EFCC staff arrest people to extort money from them, pointing out that good governance is critical in curbing corruption.
Ossai condemned the activities of some EFCC staff who arrest people carrying laptops randomly, saying they will see more laptops in Enugu because the state government had gone digital.
“In Enugu state, we are investing heavily in Smart Green schools, We are digitizing our system. We are having e- governance processes. We are making it robust so that investors can communicate with us.
We have our Smart Green schools we are investing heavily on our Smart Green schools with AI laboratories with electronic learning systems. But you EFCC go about arresting people because they are having laptops, randomly.. Laptops are replacing notebooks in classrooms .
As a government,we are importing millions of laptops for our Smart Green schools In the next few years every child in Enugu wil have laptop because we are procuring many laptops, if you will arrest people with laptop, it means you will arrest all of us. This is important. Am not saying that people are not committing electronic and virtual crime. So, EFCC, you must deal with that.” he said.
Traditional rulers, youths, women groups and other stakeholders who spoke at the event urged EFCC to involve community leaders, intellectuals and other stakeholders in the fight against corruption. They also urged them to look into the activities of their staff who extort innocent people.
The event drew well-meaning citizens, professionals, and stakeholders from across the country.
The event served as a timely reminder of the need for digital literacy, vigilance, and regulatory oversight in Nigeria’s fast-evolving financial space. With fraudsters exploiting the gaps in digital asset regulation, the EFCC reaffirmed its commitment to protect Nigerians from falling victim through education, enforcement, and reform.
NEWS1 year ago
MUSIC4 years ago
MUSIC4 years ago
MUSIC2 years ago