* Seeks NUJ partnership to tackle menace
The Acting Director, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Benin Zonal Office, Mr. Effa Okim, has revealed that Edo State ranks second after Lagos in the crime index in the country, urging journalists to join the commission in the fight against crime.
Okim made the revelation when he paid a courtesy visit to the leadership and members of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Edo State Council, saying that he knows the value of journalists and the role they play in the society hence the need for the partnership.
The EFCC boss, while stating that his team is working to curb the menace of cybercrime perpetrated by youths, mostly underage, said the EFCC in the zone is determined to partnering Edo journalists in the fight against criminality.
He stressed the commission’s commitment to flushing out criminal elements in its covering of Edo, Delta and Ondo states.
Okim, while expressing worry over the rate of crimes in the State, said that get-rich-quick syndrome in the society tends to push some young persons into using their parents for money rituals.
The EFCC boss lamented that crime has undermined the culture, tradition and sanctity of the Nigerian State.
He also blamed parents for not checkmating their children and guiding them against cybercrime and rituals.
Speaking on the recent conviction of Bobrisky on the basis of Naira abuse and the criticism the commission has received from some quarters, Okim warned that the act of spraying Naira in the public remains unacceptable.
The EFCC boss, who described the act as worse than cybercrime, said the habit of displaying and spraying money in the public has inculcated in many young ones the get-rich-quickly mentality.
In his response, the Chairman, Edo NUJ, Comrade Festus Alenkhe, expressed the readiness of members of the Edo NUJ in partnering the EFCC in the fight against crimes in the State.
He also urged the commission to make available information needed by journalists particularly cases such as the ones the commission has concluded investigation on, and probably secured the conviction of some suspects.
