Anti-graft war: EFCC, NIMC to intensify cooperation
…As Australia pledges support to EFCC
The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa, has expressed his readiness to work with the National Identity Management Commission, NIMC, in ensuring that Nigeria has a credible national identity database that will help the fight against economic and financial crimes.
He gave the assurance on Thursday, September 30, 2021, when the Director General of NIMC, Aliyu Abubakar Aziz visited him at the Commission’s headquarters, Abuja.
Acknowledging the position of NIMC as a strategic partner, Bawa underlined the importance of identity registration to law enforcement.
“There is a need for us to improve our identification system that is why I identified with you on the National Identity Day; if we have a single database for everybody, it will help us with all the information we need to identify cybercriminals by running background checks on people.”
He said he would like to see a situation where fraudsters and others convicted of various crimes have their conviction records reflected in the database of NIMC.
“While we create our own records, NIMC should be the hub where everything is warehoused,” he said
Speaking earlier, the DG NIMC Abubakar Aziz appreciated the EFCC Chairman for his presence at the National Identity Day event, stating that their work at NIMC is to create an ecosystem that will capture everybody and help law enforcement agencies with information that will assist their work.
“We also want to let the chairman know about the new development in the digital economy and to also offer suggestions and information about everything that happens there, especially information that will expose hackers in the system. We are working towards registering every Nigerian by next year; be rest assured of our support and readiness to work with you,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Australian government has pledged to support the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, in the fight against economic and financial crimes. The Australian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr. John Donnelly, made the pledge on Thursday, September 30, 2021 during a courtesy visit to the EFCC Chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa, at the Commission’s headquarters, Abuja.
The High Commissioner said that he was impressed with the Commission’s Annual Report and the achievements of Bawa in his 100 days in office, adding that he has seen how prepared the Commission is, in tackling corruption.
“I am very impressed with your programme, am here to explore options and discuss issues concerning our mutual interest and to also show our support,” he said.
He observed that Nigeria and Australia have similar experience in the area of tax fraud investigation and promised to link the EFCC with the Home Affairs Office based in Pretoria, South Africa, for necessary assistance and collaboration.
Responding, the EFCC Chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa, thanked the High Commissioner for the visit, stating that Australia is among the few countries that have a history of mutual cooperation with the Commission.
He thanked Australia for past support to the Commission.
In his words, “I want to let you know that Australia is one of the few countries where we have long standing relationship, we have a Memorandum of Understanding with the Australia Federal Police in 2012 and the Western Australia Police.”
He expressed regret that these MoUs were not adequately implemented in line with the vision of his predecessors.
“We are open for collaboration and any kind of assistance that will help us achieve results, we are also aware of the cybercrime issues of which many people from your country are victims; so we need to bridge the gap, our hands are open and we will achieve our mandate in full”, he said.
The EFCC boss disclosed that the Commission on Wednesday September 29, 2021 launched its Strategic Plan that will run through 2025. “We intend to achieve our vision of a corrupt-free Nigeria through the five objectives of the plan, including prevention, intelligence-driven investigation and development of human capacity; because without being well equipped, we cannot achieve all that.”
Bawa further informed the envoy of the recent launch of the Eagle Eye App for reporting economic crime, revealing that the application has so far recorded 13million downloads globally. Donnelly expressed surprise at the reception the EFCC App has recorded, noting that it has overtaken Nigerian music as most downloaded in Apple and Google Play Store.
