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EFCC Hands Over Indicted Nigerian Fraudster To U.S Court
Says
no more hiding place fugitive criminals
Newsdiaryonline
Friday Aug 12,2011
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The Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission, EFCC has vowed that Nigeria will no
longer be a safe place for Nigerian fugitive criminals fleeing
from law enforcement agents in other countries.
Chairman of the anti-graft agency, Mrs. Farida Waziri who
disclosed this while briefing some officers of the Commission on
the successful handover of a Nigerian fugitive, Emmanuel Ekhator
to a court in the United States on Thursday said the suspect is
the third Nigerian fugitive to be handed over to the US
authorities by the EFCC while two others are presently awaiting
extradition to the U.S
While George
Ubeozor was extradited in 2008, Sunday Adebisi Adegbesan was
handed over in 2009 both to the authorities in New York. The Latest to
suffer the same fate, Ehkator was indicted in the U.S. District
court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania on November 3,
2010 over a $32 million internet collections scam.
The suspect 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 26th, 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.
Speaking on the extradition on Friday, Waziri tasked operatives
working on other pending similar cases to intensify their
efforts.
“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 arms of the law in other
jurisdictions because this country should never be a safe place
for fugitive criminals”.
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