EFCC: We can’t stop people from using cryptocurrency

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) says said it is not against the use of cryptocurrency in the country.

Abdulkareem Chukkol, EFCC’s Director of Operations, stated this while reacting to questions on the agency’s Twitter space session on Wednesday evening.

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He, however, said the Commission will go after anyone using cryptocurrency for money laundering.

“Cryptocurrency is now a global trend and we can not stop people from using it. We are training our officers to understand cryptocurrency and to be able to deal with issues accordingly,” he said.

Chukkol, while responding to a question on how the EFCC identifies cases to investigate, he said: “We don’t only act on written petitions, we get intelligence from other sources and we act on them as soon as we establish that they are actionable intelligence.”

“The EFCC has an app that can help Nigerians to report cases to the EFCC. We have received thousands of cases in the past few months and so many properties have been recovered. If Nigerians work with us, we will be able to do more,” he said.

On his part, a Chief Superintendent at the EFCC, Samuel Chime, called on Nigerians to report people living above their earnings, especially civil servants.

“Petition EFCC if you know any civil servant living above his means,” he said.

Chime who said there were limited resources at the EFCC’s disposal, added that the Commission was doing all within its power to go after corrupt civil servants with many cases currently in court.

Chime also warned against job racketeering and visa scams, saying everyone involved would be prosecuted when apprehended.

“It’s a minimum of seven years and maximum of 20 years for a job racketeering without an option of fine. If you bribe to get a job, both the giver and taker of bribe will be jailed. The same with visa scam,” he said.