question: how did certificate forgers get jobs at the EFCC? This is the question bothering my mind at the moment.
It can be explained, how certificate forgers get jobs at the Nigerian Civil Service, and eventually become ‘civil servants’’; at NITEL, MTEL, PENTASCOPE…and such eventually become ‘engineers’’; at Banks, even at the CBN, and such become Bankers,; in the Nigerian Police, and such become Policemen, etc. How about at the EFCC?
By Oscarline Onwuemenyi, Abuja
Published: Monday, 25 Aug 2008
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Sunday said it had dismissed 11 officials for forgery and other fraudulent acts.The dismissed officials include three junior staff, four cadet officers, three senior staff and one management officer.
According to a statement by the Head of Media and Publicity in the commission, Mr. Femi Babafemi, and made available to our correspondent in Abuja, the affected officers were sacked between August 2007 and August 2008.
The dismissed officials were detected after routine investigations carried out on them to verify the authenticity of their academic claims revealed anomalies.
Those dismissed on account of certificate forgery include Adamu Samson, Usman Muhammed, Muhammed Umar, Collins Nwachukwu, Shola Pedro, Olatunji Oluwakeri, Adaka James, Akinwamide Oluwaseyi, Mohammed Maina, and David Ibhawoh.
While the 10 officers dismissed on account of forgery will not be prosecuted, the Chairman of the commission, Mrs. Farida Waziri, has, however, directed that Mr. Davies Idrisu Ibrahim, who was arrested in Lagos last week for conniving with others to defraud a suspect, should be dismissed and prosecuted.
He is expected to be charged to court this week.
This Nigerian Ambassador is definitely speaking my mind. As much as the perpetrators are guilty and should be made to face the full strength of the law, those victimized are guilty too.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Ambassador to Australia, Prof. Sunday Olu Agbi, has said that people being cheated in the so-called “Nigerian scams” are greedy and should be jailed.
According to an online publication, Agbi said on Sunday that Nigeria had gained a bad reputation because of the scams perpetrated by a few people, and that those who found themselves involved with the scams were equally as guilty as those running them.
It reads, “The Nigerian government frowns very seriously on these scams and everyday tries to track down those who are involved,” Agbi told the Sydney Morning Herald in response to a previous article on Australians falling for Nigerian scams.
“People who send their money are as guilty as those who are asking them to send the money,” he said.
Out of the 140 million people in Nigeria, Agbi said that 0.1 per cent were involved in scams. The scams, also referred to as 419 or advance-fee fraud, predate the Internet, but have exploded in recent years thanks to the proliferation of e-mail and instant money transfers.
Question:
– why do they want to profit from where they did not sow?
– why are such interested in becoming family members of dead African politicians who had a fat bank account in some European country, which cannot be accessed, except by someone living in such a country? Do they just agree to ‘send money’ to these scammers, all out of doing a favor to some poor soul in Africa, until such agree to give their bank account details, and get duped etc?
– why didn’t the scammed contact the nearest Nigerian Embassy/Consulate or the nearest police station in their country to verify such claims.
Ofcourse the tales these scammers tell are very captivating to covetous ears, but really, it takes two to tango. Gossip has a mouth and an ear: the mouth that gossips and the ears that listen.
