Interception of fake currencies

Recently, the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) in collaboration with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) intercepted N14.21 billion fake currencies within three months. The currencies, which were reportedly recovered between October and December last year, consist of £894.774 (N202.77 million), $117.06 million (N13.55 billion) and 2.64 Euros (N451.88 million).

According to the Post Master-General of the Federation, Mallam Ibrahim Baba, the currencies were concealed in more than 4,000 scam letters destined for the United States, Britain, Germany and France. Others are China, Japan, Canada and Brazil. The interception was made possible through the assistance of the British Serious Organized Crime Agency and the Postal Inspectorate Unit of the US Postal Service.

About 2,500 fake international passports being sent to countries in Europe, Asia, Middle East, North and South America as well as US were also intercepted during the period. Also recovered were 105 digital cameras, 55 Cam-coders and more than 100 assorted high-end digital mobile handsets fraudulently sourced through the Internet by some unscrupulous persons.

Baba, who spoke to journalists in Abuja recently on the 2008 Pan African Post Day Celebration, said that the recovered items had been returned to their owners in accordance with international postal regulations.

The NIPOST boss said that this breakthrough in the fight against fraudsters was made possible with the support and cooperation of officials of EFCC, the Nigerian Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), the Nigerian Immigration Service and the Nigeria Customs Service.

We commend NIPOST and other agencies of government and their foreign partners who made it possible to intercept the scam letters that contained the fake currencies. It is a pity that while the government is busy fighting corruption; some of its misguided citizens are involved in fraudulent activities that dent the image of the country.

We urge the NIPOST, EFCC and others involved in this haul to keep it up and be more vigilant to intercept future ones. The NIPOST example should serve as a model that other agencies should emulate. The war on corruption should not be seen as the job of EFCC alone. For the nation to win this war, all citizens must contribute meaningfully to its prosecution. We suggest that NIPOST in collaboration with the International Police (INTERPOL) should arrest the perpetrators of the crime alongside their foreign accomplices and make them face the law. Both the senders and the receivers of these fraudulent letters should be apprehended and dealt with accordingly.

We call on the leadership of the country to work on the spiritual and moral aspects of our life. They can do this by being exemplary. We believe that organizing the society on the path of moral rectitude would invariably discourage this type of behaviour. The unbridled acquisitiveness, opulence and ostentation displayed by the ruling elite might lure some citizens to engage in fraud.

The mindless looting of public treasury by our erstwhile political leaders might engender corruption among the citizenry. To stop this cankerworm, the government should stop paying lip service to poverty eradication by creating jobs for the teeming army of unemployed Nigerians.