EFCC returns 53 vehicles, $180,300 to Canadian police

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has handed over the sum of $180,300 and 53 vehicles, being assets recovered from Nigerian fraudsters, to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).

The recovered items were handed over to the Canadian police at the EFCC corporate headquarters in Abuja on Friday, September 6, 2024.

The EFCC disclosed that $164,000 of the recovered cash assets belong to a victim, identified as Elena Bogomas, while $16,300 belong to another victim known as Sandra Butler.

It noted that the recovered 53 vehicles were stolen over a period of time in Canada, freighted to Nigeria and distributed to multiple locations in Nigeria by the criminal elements.

Speaking at the handing over ceremony, the EFCC Chairman, Ola Olukoyede, who was elated by the successes of anti-graft agency’s collaborations with the RCMP, noted that the efforts that led to the recoveries and the handover spoke strongly to the fact that the Nigerian government was intolerant of fraud and corruption.

Olukoyede said: “What the EFCC is doing today is on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria. This is to demonstrate that the government of Nigeria will never and for whatever reason tolerate any act of financial crime.

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“It is a demonstration of the fact that President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed has given us the mandate to extend our hands of fellowship and collaboration with you to ensure that this particular problem is resolved. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has been collaborating with us and that commitment has resulted in a lot of recoveries.

“The operation took a couple of years and eventually it resulted in substantial recoveries. So we deem it necessary to let our colleagues and our friends from the Canadian Royal Mounted Police know that as an agency, EFCC, and as a country, we are always ready to fight financial crimes.

“Nigeria is not, shouldn’t necessarily be seen as a hub, it’s a transit camp, the way Canada is a transit camp and most countries across the world because they move from one jurisdiction to another.”

The Canadian police were represented by the First Secretary of Deputy High Commission of Canada, Robert Aboumitri, and the Liason Officer and Programme Manager of RCMP, Nasser Salihou.

The Star