Engr Akan Michael has called for partnership with the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, EFCC, to address the menace of cybercrime among our youths. He made the call during the second edition of the National Engineering Science and Technology Essay Competition, NESTEC, held in Abuja.
According to Engr Akan who is the promoter and convener of the National Engineering Science and Technology Essay Competition, NESTEC, EFCC has been doing well in recent times by arresting and prosecuting youths who are into cybercrimes popularly known as Yahoo. He noted that more youths were going into the crime and there need for the commission to adopt a new approach to addressing the challenge. He is however worried that the impact of such arrest and prosecution has not stemmed the negative activities of these youths. According to him, Blue Apple is seeking to partner with EFCC to harness the youths’ potential and skills and redirect it to useful purposes. He mentioned that US, Russia, Israel, Germany and North Korea lead in global cybercrime but that these countries have been able to manage their situation by converting it to economic gains.
The EFCC chairman, Mr Abdulrasheed Bawa ably represented by the director of ICT, Mohammed Bello extolled the virtues of NESTEC and explained that the world’s focus is now on Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Blockchain technology and the likes. He agreed that there is need to do more. He applauded the convener of NESTEC for such an initiative that he believes will address the nation’s problems.
This year’s event was in conjunction with the Nigerian Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, NIEEE which saw three winners emerged from the 9 finalists. Prize monies worth a million naira were shared among winners. Consolation prizes were also given to other finalists.
