EFCC hands over Nigerian fraudster to US• Vows to make country unsafe for fugitive criminals

Posted by admin EFCC Politics, Headlines Friday, August 12th, 2011

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has vowed that Nigeria would no longer be a safe place for Nigerian fugitive criminals fleeing from law enforcement agents in other countries.
According to the chairman of the anti-graft agency, Mrs. Farida Waziri, briefing some officers of the commission on the successful handover of a Nigerian, Emmanuel Ekhator, to a court in the United States on Thursday, this has become necessary so that no Nigerian will commit crime abroad and run home believing he/she would avoid prosecution.

A statement by Mr. Femi Babafemi, EFCC head, media & publicity, quoted Waziri as saying that Ekhator is the third Nigerian fugitive EFCC has handed over to the US authorities. She said that two others are currently awaiting extradition to the U.S

The EFCC boss said that while George Ubeozor was extradited in 2008, Sunday Adebisi Adegbesan was handed over in 2009 to the authorities in New York. Ehkator, she revealed, was indicted in the U.S. district court, in the Middle District of Pennsylvania on November 3, 2010 over a $32 million Internet collections scam.
He was arrested in Benin City, Edo State in August 2010 by EFCC operatives following top level exchange of information between U.S. law enforcement agents and the EFCC over the activities of a trans-border ring of Internet scammers headed by Ekhator.
The extradition process, filed through the office of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, was eventually approved by a Federal High Court in Lagos on July 26, 2011.

The suspect was, however, flown to the U.S. on Wednesday and handed over to a District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania on Thursday by an officer of the EFCC.
Waziri tasked operatives working on other pending similar cases to intensify their efforts.
Waziri said: “With the latest extradition in addition to the two earlier done, and the two others pending, the message should be clear to anyone who travels abroad to commit crime and run back home to hide that Nigeria is no longer safe for them because, we will get them and hand them over to face the law.
“We will continue to do our best in this regard and with the continued support of the Attorney General of the Federation, we will surely make Nigeria unsafe for those fleeing from the long arm of the law in other jurisdictions because this country should never be a safe place for fugitive criminals.”

-Sunwp_posts