The Federal Government has expressed readiness to extradite some Nigerians indicted by the American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for conspiracy, money laundering and identity theft.
The FBI said 14 of the suspects had been arrested while the remaining defendants were “believed to be abroad with most of them located in Nigeria.” There are a total of 17 suspects in custody in the U.S.
At a joint press conference in Abuja, on Friday, the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission and the EFCC described the indictment of 77 Nigerians out of a total of 80 suspects worldwide as embarrassing vowing to put a stop to the “era of 419ers.”
“We have 77 Nigerians allegedly being involved in cybercrime in one fell swoop. We’ve stressed that these Nigerians are innocent until proven guilty. It is a court indictment, they will have to go to court, they have to be tried but we are demanding fair trial for them and good consular services for them,” chairperson of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, said.
“And we really need to affirm that they are not all Nigerians. But it is a very embarrassing situation to have, out of 80 people (suspects), 77 from Nigeria allegedly. Just last week, there was a cybercrime case with a young Nigerian too. When things like this happen, it dents the image of the country, however, that’s not who we are as a people, a few people committing crime should not tarnish the image of a country of 200 million people. So we’ll keep emphasizing that we are not going to accept the stereotype.
“However, we want the whole world to see that we are doing something about cybercrime; that’s why we are here at the EFCC to say Nigerians in the Diaspora count on you to tackle cybercrime effectively. So, we hope that EFCC will ensure that even those ones in Nigeria will not be supported. We said just go voluntarily if they need you and I’m sure Nigeria will support their extradition if they so ask.
“So, Mr. Chairman, we just want you to reassure the world that we are not a nation of 419ners because we have an EFCC that is doing everything possible to put a stop to the menace.
“The commission will be working with the EFCC to have a special desk to tackle cases like this whether it is about fraud or any other related issue. So, we’ll have a desk with EFCC for Nigerians in the Diaspora to complain to whether you’ve been cheated or otherwise and I’m sure EFCC can provide those answers to this problem,” she said.
The EFCC chairperson declared that his commission would collaborate with the FBI to apprehend the culprits.
“It is very sad that the era of this 419ers is coming back. I remember we worked with the American FBI particularly in Lagos and its environment in an operation tagged ‘Wire-Wire’. They (FBI) mentioned that we were one of the agencies that actually participated in the operation and it was very successful.
“But to come out with the list of these 77 Nigerians is very unfortunate. Meanwhile, it is not that we are not doing anything here; we are working and reenergizing to storm their hideouts. We’ll also cooperate with our partners. Last time, we were in Ghana because when the heat was on them, most of them were operating from Ghana. We’ll cooperate with our partners to check the menace of Yahoo Boys because it is a borderless crime because you cannot do it alone. So, I’m happy that the Americans participated in the operation.
“I also want the media people to help us tell Nigerians because some people don’t still believe that the activities of these Yahoo Yahoo Boys are still strong. We have a situation where we have Mothers of Yahoo Yahoo Association, I don’t know whether you’ve heard of that. Whenever we arrest their children, they’ll gather around our offices pleading for the release of their children. So, I want you to help us sensitize Nigerians so that people will frown at the menace of 419.
It could be recalled that the FBI had last week arrested a celebrated Nigerian Business man, Obinwanne Okeke (also known as Invictus Obi) who was listed by Forbes Magazine under 30 achievers to watch out for in 2016.