Data base device can stop corruption in Nigeria -Special Fraud Unit
The Police Special Fraud Unit (PSFU) has said that only the use of Data base can put an end to corruption in Nigerian.
PSFU is the highest investigation outfit in the police force and it collaborates with the other fraud institution in the World. It is headed by CP Ibrahim Lamode.
According to the Public Relation Officer of the Unit (PRO), Deputy Superintendent of Police, Audu Lawal, while speaking extensively with group of Journalists on Friday at PSFU’s office in Lagos, said the use of data base in the country can prevent crime and corruption.
Mr Audu Lawal, said only the effort of the government can help tame the monster of corruption through data base. He said the Unit is known for pure professionalisms, “we don’t condone job half done, and those cases brought before us are fraud and forgery cases with other related financial cases.”
“We investigate with all sense of professionalism, we also prosecute our cases, and we don’t detain suspects more than necessary, while the investigation is going on”
“The issue of cases that are brought to us must interpret elements of crime before investigation, apart from Embassy and High Commission that are reported to us, we get the approval from the DIG Force Criminal Investigative Department (CID), and without the approval from DIG, the case will not commence”. He said.
Lawal, warned the general public over visa procurement, coming from Embassy and High Commission, saying, especially that the applicants applying for Zchengen Visa, should desist from patronizing unauthorized agent who produce unacceptable certificate or fake documents to procure their visa for them.
He said, “It is illegal to patronize tout for visa, and when any documents, like, Health Insurance Certificate, Limited Liability Company Certificate, Tax Clearance Certificate, Duly Bank Statement and many more are used in supporting your application for procurement of visa are fake, the Consular will send it to us for proper investigation .”
Another one he said, is procurement of fake US visa, Canadian visa .He said they want to give themself previous travel history to show the Embassy that, “I have been to UK before or to Canada before, and of course, they have to show the evidence of travelling in their passport, they will go to a vendor who will now go and print fake visa on their passports, both the arrival and the departure stamp to make them look active and passport of someone who have
been travelling.
Lawal, also reiterated the efforts of the Unit that, “from January till date, we have prosecuted an average of fifteen people, and we received more than fifty passports from the Italian Embassy every month for investigation as a result of fake document by applicants to procure visa.”
He said on investigation, the applicants submitted fake addresses, which most times, jeopardized our effort on the investigation of the holder of the passport. He said, “We tracked them through contacts on phone before we can get them arrested.”
“Sometimes, mischievous people will take children to telecommunications centre to register SIM with different identity and fake addresses, “only when the SIM is in use we can be able to track them.” He said
The PRO, also commented on cybercrime in the country, saying that, recently, a woman was caught disguising like a man in a love scam, scammed a desperate European woman to the sum E10,000, we contacted some banks on how the money was paid, the intelligent techniques support helps us out before the arrest could be made.
Lawal, said when such case is reported to SFU, of course, we request for the bank account number of the suspect, and most time, the suspect name and the address will be fake and difficult to trace for investigation.
“He appeals to all Nigerian’s banks not to aid and abet the criminals but work in accordance with Central Bank of Nigeria to reduce crime to a bearable minimum in our country” he said.
