EFCC To Help Netherlands Investigate Fraud Cases

The EFCC is to assist the Netherlands to investigate some fraud cases, the Acting Chairman of the Commission, Mr Ibrahim Lamorde, has said.

The Acting Head of Media and Publicity of the EFCC, Mr Wilson Uwujaren, in a statement said that Lamorde gave the indication when the Dutch Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Bert Ronhaar, visited him in Abuja on Thursday.

Ronhaar was accompanied on the visit by Mr Peter Jacobs, the Police Attaché at the Dutch Embassy.

The Netherlands government assured that it would seek the intervention of the EFCC in the investigation of some organised crime cases.

The envoy congratulated Lamorde, and regretted the lull in the past few years of the excellent relationship between the Netherlands police and the EFCC.

He promised his government’s renewed commitment to reviving “existing links in the overall interest of the people of both countries”.

According to the statement, Rohhaar also promised to table before the Netherlands government, a request to support the EFCC with equipment and training to improve its capacity in dealing with organised crimes.

It said the Ambassador assured Lamorde that EFCC operatives would be accommodated in a capacity building programme for law enforcement officers in the Netherlands in 2012.

The EFCC boss, in his response, thanked the envoy for the offer of assistance, saying that the EFCC had excellent training facilities in the country at its Research and Training Institute at Karu in Abuja.

It recalled that the EFCC in its formative years had robust relationships with the Netherlands and the Dutch police.

“The X-ray equipment that extracts information from telephones installed at the Lagos Office of the Commission was donated by the Netherlands,” it said.

The Ambassador was urged in the statement to ‘bury’ the issues that led to the lull in relations between the two organisations and renew ties with the EFCC.

“It is a new dawn at EFCC. Things are going to be done differently in this era, I can assure you. Your coming, for me, marks a renewal of cordial and lasting relations.

“Whatever issues we had in the past should be disregarded, formal and good relations should be restored,” the statement read.

The EFCC boss assured of his resolve to cleanse the commission and turn it around, adding that the envoy’s confidence in the commission would not be betrayed.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that Ronhaar is the fourth foreign envoy to visit the EFCC since 28 November when Lamorde formally assumed office as acting chairman.

Others are the German Ambassador, Dorothee Janetzke-Wenzel, the Deputy Head of the U.S. Mission in Nigeria, Mr James McAnulty and the British Deputy High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr Giles Lever.