The director of Nigeria’s National Cyber Crime Centre (NCCC) of the Nigerian Police Force, CP Ifeanyi Henry Uche has said that the Centre is leaving no stone unturned in the fight against sextortion and other cyber crimes which has resulted into death in certain instances pointing out that, “We are giving the criminals a serious hit.
Speaking against the backdrop of allegations particularly from some foreign countries accusing Nigeria of being the base of most sextortion criminals, CP Uche said “Our officers are hitting the criminals hard. Therefore, it is laughable that anyone should accuse Nigeria of not taking sextortion crime seriously”.
“We are giving the criminals a very serious hit. A lot them have been prosecuted and a lot have been arrested” .
“Many of these criminals are moving, relocating to neighbouring countries now because of our activity.”
The Director noted that towards efforts tk arrest the criminals and foil other plots, while detering others, the federal government has spent millions of pounds on a state-of-the-art cyber-crime centre.
He said this commitment and investment was to show that it is taking the fight against cyber-crime seriously, especially sextortion.
Emphasizing that Nigerian teenagers are also being targeted and have fallen victims of sextortion, CP Uche said the criminals were not just a Nigerian problem, but there are other sextortionists in south-east Asia.
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While disclosing that tackling cyber criminality would require global support, proactive measures were already being emplaced to address the menacr
He disclosed that with this in mind, a technical team from the NPF-NCCC are this week visiting the UK’s National Crime Agency noting that the UK counterpart last month, issued a warning to children and schools about a rise in sextortion cases.
The visit to the UK is designed to improve collaboration on the fight against sextortion and other cyber-crime investigations. It follows similar meetings with Japanese police recently.
It would be recalled that nvestigations by researchers and law enforcement agencies have pointed to West Africa, and particularly Nigeria, as a hotspot for cyber attackers are based.
Reports disclosed that In April, two Nigerian men were arrested after a schoolboy from Australia killed himself.
Two other men are on trial in Lagos, after the suicides of a 15-year-old boy in the US and a 14-year-old in Canada.
In January, US cyber-company Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) highlighted a web of Nigerian TikTok, YouTube and Scribd accounts sharing tips and scripts for sextortion.
Many of the discussions and videos are in Nigerian Pidgin dialect.It’s not the first time that Nigeria’s young tech-savvy population has embraced a new wave of cyber-crime.
The criminals were tracked to Nigeria, arrested, and then extradited to the US.Two brothers from Lagos – Samuel Ogoshi, 22, and Samson Ogoshi, 20 – are awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to child sexploitation charges.
Furthermore, a Nigerian man linked to Jordan’s death and other cases is fighting extradition.
