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The head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ola Olukoyede, has sounded warnings about the infiltration of sophisticated foreign fraud networks setting up operational hubs within Nigerian urban centers, a development he views as a growing threat to national stability.
He further revealed that these syndicates are actively enlisting Nigerian youths into highly organized cybercrime ventures, with cryptocurrency scams ranking among their most lucrative and pervasive schemes, exploiting both technology and desperation in equal measure.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, February 26, 2025, by Dele Oyewale, the EFCC’s Head of Media and Publicity, it was disclosed that Olukoyede shared these insights during a meeting with participants of the Executive Intelligence Management Course (EIMC 18) from the National Institute for Security Studies, who were led by their Director of Studies, Hyginus Ngele, to the commission’s headquarters.
“Another dimension that is not given attention is the discovery, recently, that organized foreign fraud syndicates are establishing cells in Nigerian cities and recruiting young Nigerians into serious organized cybercrimes, including cryptocurrency fraud,” he said.
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Speaking further, he stated that by virtue of EFCC’s recent discovery “We are beginning to see the likelihood, the propensity that a lot of these people are into illegal importation of arms into the country using cryptocurrency as means of payment. And this is an area that must interest all of u.
“In the special operations we carried out in Lagos recently, we arrested 194 foreigners in the heart of Victoria Island. One hundred and ninety-four of them, Chinese, Filipinos, Eastern Europeans, Tunisians, and the like in one building at a time. You can imagine what these guys are doing, 194 of them. Some of them don’t even have valid visas, and most of the financial activities they carried out they did through cryptocurrency.
He explained that another discovery they had made was that some of the foreigners they had arrested were already ex-convicts in their home countries. He added that some of them had been convicted and had escaped from their countries, finding a safe haven in Africa, not just Nigeria. He further noted that, based on the investigation they were conducting, they had found that these individuals were also developing cells in other African countries.
