By Olawale Ajimotokan and Udora Orizu in Abuja
The Republic of Korea National Police has trained 15 officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on forensic technology.
The EFCC officials, who participated in the two-week training, were drawn from its six zonal offices of Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt, Enugu, Gombe and Kano.
The Korean Ambassador to Nigeria, Lee In-Tae, during a visit to the headquarters of the commission in Jabi, Abuja, pledged the support of his government to the EFCC in the area of cyber intelligence and forensic capacity building.
In-Tae, who was visibly happy with the EFCC’s state-of-the-art Forensic Laboratory Directorate, expressed optimism that the commission will drastically reduce corruption and cyber crimes in the country.
The envoy was accompanied by the Director of the Korean Cultural Centre, Abuja, Lee Jin Su.
The ambassador said that his country was ready to share programme with Nigeria on intelligence to enhance forensic investigation.
According to him, the two-week training (September 23rd – October 5th) was a great step between Nigeria and Korea.
“With you, I see a Nigeria that will be free of crimes,” Tae told the acting Chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu.
Magu charged the Korean ambassador to assist the commission in the fight against corruption and cyber crimes, adding that the commission was ready to partner with Korea to have more of its officials trained.
He said the goal of the commission was to be ahead of every other investigation agency in the country.
According to Magu, the on-going training was very important as it would strengthen the digital capacity of its officials and give them advantage over others.
“The advantage of having the trainers come here is to get more people trained. We are proud of your initiative to give us training. We will extend it to other officers. This training will improve how we do things. Our men are willing to work and learn. We are very grateful that you came.
“We appreciate your visit and we want to be introduced to more opportunities to enable the commission continue to be in the lead of the fight against corruption, even if it means acquiring sophisticated and updated equipment that will aid our anti-graft fight, we will be glad to receive it,” the EFCC chairman said.
One of the trainees, Benjamin Nuhu, speaking to THISDAY, said the training had taught him ways to acquire evidence on forensic investigation, gather data and analyze them and process them in a way that they can be rendered as evidence.
He expressed his gratitude to the Korean police, adding that the training was educative, not only to investigation but also for personal use.
