Two Nigerian international cybercrime suspects formerly based in London and Japan have fallen into the net of the Port Harcourt zone of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). EFCC Acting Executive Chairman, Mr. Ibrahim Magu, disclosed this on Tuesday, August 3, 2019 in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, at a press conference convened to update the media on the nefarious activities of some suspected internet fraudsters in the Niger Delta region.

Magu, who was represented by the Head of the EFCC in Port Harcourt, Mr. Abdulrasheed Bawa, disclosed that in the last eight months, 105 arrests were made by the Zonal Office on internet-related offences. He added that the Zone is working on 13 different cases of cybercrimes in collaboration with America’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Two of such cases, he said, involve the arrest of Ogbonnah Atoukaritou, formerly based in London, and Alpha Chidi Egbeoni, formerly based in Japan.

“Generally, the Port Harcourt’s Zonal Office is peculiar on the investigation of crude oil theft and illegal dealing in oil- related products. The last eight months have been months of intensive and extensive investigations and prosecution of oil- related and several internet- related in which the Zone has recorded 149 convictions, made N268,934,375.75 , $2,012,568.00 and £15,000.00 recoveries and have 162 cases in court,” he said.

He also disclosed that the Port Harcourt Zone secured the final forfeiture of 242 trucks and vehicles to the Federal Government in July 2019 and was on the verge of securing final forfeiture of another 11 vessels and barges. He decried the rampant rate of internet- related offences, saying that they have grave economic, social and negative consequences.

In a related development, the Abuja Zonal Office of EFCC recovered the sum of N423,006,987.92, $39,253) and €2330 between January and August 2019.

This was disclosed by Magu, who spoke through the Head of the Abuja Office, Aminu Ado Aliyu, at a press briefing yesterday, September 3, 2019.

Aliyu disclosed that the zone was also focusing on cybercrime through intelligence gathering and collaboration with other agencies across the world. “Prior to the release of the FBI list, we had in collaboration with the FBI, cases under investigation of which 2 suspects indicted in the list released by the FBI are in our custody. On the other hand, another suspect on the list is being investigated independently on a different case and his case is pending arraignment,” he said.

Two of the suspects, Chika Augustine and Godspower Nwachukwu, were arrested in Abuja and $35,000 has been recovered from one of them (Chika Augustine).

The Zonal Head disclosed that 33 convictions have been secured from January 2019 till date; 293 arrests have made and over 465 cases are currently under investigation.

He further warned that the modus operandi of these criminals include and not limited to Love scams, Email Phishing, Identity theft and Fraudulent Bitcoin and crypto currency sales.

Aminu also cautioned the public against the prevalence of Fraudulent Bitcoin sales seeing that it is on the rise.

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