Fraud: EFCC arrest 280 suspects, recovers N550m, $690,000 in Kano

From Mustapha Adamu, Kano

The Kano Zonal of the Economic and Financial Crimes commission (EFCC) yesterday said it has arrested 280 suspects of various crimes in Kano between January and August this year.
This was revealed by the Zonal Head of the Commission, Mr Akaninyene Ezima at a press conference in Kano.
According to Ezima, the suspects were arrested for crimes bordering on cybercrimes, money laundering, black money, wash-wash, foxy scheme and MMM among others.
He added that during the period under review, the commission had recovered a sum of N550m and $690,000, which he said was recovered at Malam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA).
The anti-corruption zonal head added that the commission is currently pursuing 51 cases of various offenses in courts under the zone, adding that investigation into several cases had attained different stages of completion.
He called on the management of banks operating in the states under the zone to improve their response system in order to protect their customers from being duped by the fraudsters.
“The commission has observed that such crimes are being taken place during weekend days when banks are not operating, so by improving the response system of the banks, the banks can avert any attempt by such criminals to steal from someone’s account,” he said.
He said the commission on its part had embarked on rigorous sensitization campaign with a view to discouraging members of the public on how to protect themselves from falling victims of mmm, wash-wash and foxy scheme among others forms of crimes.
He said, “We have held programmes in two television stations and a radio station in Katsina State where we sensitised public on how these fraudsters operate and discouraged them not to engage in such activities.
“The commission will soon organized similar programmes in other states under the zone. I therefore, appealed to members of the public to always avail the commission with useful information that will help it curtail all corrupt related crimes in the zone,” he said
He assured that the commission would treat such information with maximum secrecy in order to protect the informant.