Senate Committee Scores EFCC High On ICT, Cyber Crime

By Matthew Ogune, Abuja
Senate Committee Chairman on Information Communication Technology (ICT) and Cyber Crime, Senator Yakubu Oseni, and other Committee members have commended the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for its robust ICT, Cyber Crime and Forensic infrastructures.

They gave the commendation on Wednesday in Abuja when the Senate Committee on ICT and Cyber Crime paid an Oversight Visit to the EFCC.

Oseni and other members of his Committee, after taking a tour of ICT and Forensic facilities at the Corporate Headquarters of the Commission, expressed delight at their scope, depth and sophistication.

“We are pleasantly surprised at the level of infrastructures you have in place to deal with cyber criminals. You have abilities to deal with the criminals,” they said.

In his own remark, EFCC’s Acting Chairman, Mr. Umar Abba Mohammed, told the Committee members that: “the EFCC has built a robust ICT Infrastructure that is still being expanded and upgraded to meet our administrative and operational requirements.”

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To demonstrate this, he took the Committee members on a fact-finding tour of the Server room, Special room, Forensic laboratories and other facilities in the ICT and Forensic Sections.

Mohammed noted that combating cyber crime was one of the challenges the world is facing today and that the EFCC is improving its ICT facilities to beat any form of cyber crime.

Explaining the basis of the Senate’s Oversight Visit, Oseni said that “criminal elements around the world have chosen to turn ICT revolution into a nightmare. The gains of digital technology are being dampened by rapid evolution of cybersecurity threat landscape, with increased attacks in both sophistication and severity.”

He also said that his Committee was concerned about the state of ICT infrastructures in ministries, departments and agencies of government.

An important fall-out of the visit was the need to bridge the observed gap in the upgrade and expansion of the forensic infrastructures in EFCC.

Vice- Chairman of the Senate Committee on ICT and Cyber crime, Senator Abdulfatai Buhari said that, with the level of development and sophistication of the infrastructures in the Commission, his Committee will have little difficulty in making a strong case in favour of the EFCC.

“We will collaborate to bridge every gap”, he said.

Another member of the Committee, Senator Foster Ogola promised that, going by the positive findings at the EFCC, “we will be your ambassadors in the Senate.”

Other members of the Senate Committee on the visit are Senator Emmanuel Oker-Jev, Senator Ibrahim Hassan Hadejia, and Clerk/ Secretary of the Committee, Mr Ayoh E Ogon.