Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre (NPF-NCCC) operatives have arrested six suspects over computer-related fraud, money laundering, criminal conspiracy, armed robbery and other criminal offences, ravenewsonline reports.
Akaninyene Ezima, assistant inspector-general of Police (AIG) in charge of NPF-NCCC, said this at a news conference in Abuja on Wednesday.
Mr Ezima said the arrest of the suspects was in line with the vision of Olatunji Disu, inspector-general of police (IGP), to ensure a safe and secure environment for economic growth and public safety.
He also said that the NPF-NCCC remained committed to disrupting criminal networks, strengthening investigative and digital forensic capabilities, and protecting Nigeria’s financial and digital ecosystem.
The AIG explained that two of the suspects were arrested over criminal conspiracy, stealing and money laundering.
According to him, the arrest followed a petition received by the IG on August 13 from a payment services platform against Ecovista Industries PVT Limited and others.
He said the petitioner alleged the diversion of approximately N6.2 billion from the Treasury Single Account of a financial institution.
“Preliminary investigation indicates that the transactions occurred in connection with a configuration vulnerability during the migration of the financial institution profile from the Public-Sector API to the Private-Sector API.
“Investigation also revealed failed earlier transfer attempts valued at approximately N84.39 billion before the successful transactions were processed.
“A total of 761 payments amounting to approximately N6.174 billion were traced to 105 beneficiaries across 19 banks,” he said.
Mr Ezima said the investigators also identified transactions presented as refunds to customers of Ecovista Industries, after which some recipients were allegedly directed to transfer the funds into alternative accounts linked to the company.
According to him, two Indian nationals connected to the company have been arrested and are assisting the investigation.
He also said efforts were ongoing to locate another Indian national who was of interest in the case but was currently at large.
He added that the idea was to determine the circumstances surrounding the exploitation of the vulnerability, trace the movement of the funds and recover proceeds of the alleged crime.
The AIG said the NPF-NCCC was also engaging relevant stakeholders and international partners as part of the ongoing investigation.
