Reno Omokri, the former Presidential spokesperson on new media to Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has said the former Nigeria President, Olusegun Obasanjo in 2003 established the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC to work with the International Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering to ensure Nigeria is not blacklisted by the international community because of Northern military officers who took advantage of the administration of Sani Abacha as a safe haven for international money laundering fraud.

Reno Omokri who made the statement yesterday in continuous reaction to EFCC mass arrests in the southern Nigeria which Reno Omokri in reaction described online fraud often known as Yahoo Yahoo tied to young southern youths as a smaller economic crime in Nigeria while the bigger economic crimes like currency racketeering, illegal smuggling of rice and petrol products through President Muhammadu Buhari home state, Katsina perpetrated by Northerners are not being addressed or given due attention.

“The second biggest economic crime in Nigeria is currency racketeering. It cost Nigeria over 2 billion dollar annually. Most of those engaged in the Black market are Northerners.

“The biggest smuggling hub in Nigeria is katsina. Smuggling is the biggest economic crime in Nigeria. Nigeria loses 2.5 billion dollar everyday to smuggling, particularly petrol and rice smuggling.

“The biggest thief in human history is Sani Abacha. He and his sons have been convicted of stealing over 5.5 billion dollar from Nigeria. But instead of recognising that, the biggest stadium in Kano is named after him.

“Let’s consider some facts. The EFCC was founded by former President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2003, to work with the international Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering to ensure Nigeria was not blacklisted by the international community, due to the weakness of previous efforts by past administrations to fight money laundering and other financial crimes in Nigeria.

“This is because Nigeria was blacklisted by the FATF during the Abacha administration as an international haven for money launderers, most of whom were Northern military officers directly connected to the Abacha military junta.

“Let’s talk about terror financing. Who are those providing finances for Boko Haram and bandits running into billions of dollars?

“Online fraud is only a small part of the overall economic crimes in Nigeria, and it is a national affair. It is not just a Southern affair, though I agree with you that it is more prevalent in the South.

“Reason being that the evil practice requires a higher level of education. For example, you @princemaleek20 can’t even spell yahoo (yayoo yayoo). With such poor command of English, who are you going to dupe even if you want to ‘yayoo yayoo’ somebody? You are just like an ugly girl who condemns beautiful girls for being flirts because nobody is interested in flirting with her”, Reno Omokri said.

It would be observed the weak value of Naira to dollar exchange rate have generally affected the cost of goods and services in Nigeria and thus making cost of living very difficult for many to afford.

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