Lorine Emenike
The Economic and Financial Crime Commission EFCC has organized a one-day workshop on Financial Crimes Reporting for journalists in Rivers State to enhance best practices. The event was held at the EFCC Port Harcourt zonal command, Rivers state.
Dele Oyewale (ACE1), former head of communication EFCC Port Harcourt zonal command, delivered a lecture on “Best Practices in Financial Crimes Reporting: With a view from the inside” and says the reportage of criminal occurrence is low because journalists have lost enthusiasm for their jobs.
He said journalists are supposed to be proactive in breaking stories and thorough reportage so that anti-crime agencies will get reports from them and act effectively.
“Reporting of crime must keep pace with the rising trend of crime, as crime worldwide is evolving with sonic speed. Unfortunately, reporting crime is not keeping pace with the rise of crime.
“There are number of crime not reported because the media is not playing its role. There are EFCC cases that are not reported because journalists are not reporting.
“Today’s media in the area of criminality that are not reported, some are underreported; journalists are supposed to be critical and analytical. Some cases are not followed up at all. Why cases are under-reported, not reported are because of lethargy, lack of drive is affecting effectiveness in reportage.”
He urged journalists to up their game to do more in reporting.
“we need to be inquisitive in any report to better understand a matter; that is the hallmark of report gathering.”
On his part, DCE Anselem Ozioko, Deputy Director Legal and Prosecution EFCC Port Harcourt zonal command, one of the workshop facilitators who delivered a lecture on “Challenges of Prosecuting Economic and Financial Crimes in Nigeria, said amongst other challenges they face in effectively carrying out their jobs, Jurisdictional Issues is a critical issue affecting the thorough and effectiveness in their duty discharge.
” the law has it that EFCC has the jurisdiction to stay any cybercrime committed anywhere. Section 40 of the EFCC act states that a stay of proceedings cannot apply in trying EFCC trying a criminal matter. We are committed to fighting crime; we cannot don’t without the law.”
Also, ACE11 Buhari Nuru Dalhatu, one of the facilitators at the workshop who presented a lecture on “Peculiarity, Trends, Typologies and Challenges of Cybercrimes Enforcement in Nigeria”, commenced his address by first defining Cybercrime as any criminal activity that involves a computer or network device.
He said Cybercrime’s targeted victims are government agencies, the military, businesses/cooperations and individuals.
“The devices for Cybercrime crimes are categorized as weapon, device as target(perpetrators use victims mobile phone to carry out their crime) and device as medium (chat platforms).
He elaborated on the stages through which cyber criminals go through before carrying out their crime.
“The stages are; Recognizance (targeted victims are being studied to know who they are, how they behave), Scanning (trying to see the advantage they will take to extort their victim), Gaining Access (they can gain access physically or through a medium, for example internet, Maintaining Access (they maintain their access until they carryout their plan and Clear Track ( after carrying out their game, they clear their track so that they cannot be traced”
He further advised journalists to device other ways of investigations to ensure thorough reportage.
