According to EFCC Chairman Ola Olukoyede, foreign fraud syndicates are establishing cells in Nigerian cities and recruiting youths for cybercrime, including cryptocurrency fraud. EFCC Spokesperson Dele Oyewale confirmed this in a statement released on Thursday in Abuja.

He explained that Olukoyede revealed this while receiving participants of the Executive Intelligence Management Course (EIMC) 18 of the National Institute for Security Studies (NISS) on Wednesday in Abuja.

He stated that the team was led by the institute’s director of studies, Hyginus Ngele, to the commission. Olukoyede expressed surprise at how bandits and insurgents were able to continue their activities in the country over time. He expressed alarm over the rapid transit of small arms and light weapons across borders, as well as the role of non-state actors in the unlawful mining of minerals in certain sections of the nation.

According to the EFCC chairman, all of these operations exacerbated the security landscape’s risks. “Another dimension that has received less attention is the recent discovery that organised overseas fraud syndicates are setting up cells in Nigerian cities. “They are recruiting young Nigerians for serious organized criminality, including bitcoin fraud. “By the virtue of EFCC’s recent discovery, we are beginning to see the likelihood, the propensity that a lot of these people are into illegal importation of arms into the country using cryptocurrency as a means of payment.”

According to him, this is an area that must interest all of us.