The Gombe Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Gombe Geographical Information System (GOGIS) have renewed their partnership to tackle the growing menace of land fraud in the state.
This development was announced during a sensitization lecture organized by the EFCC at the GOGIS office in Gombe on Friday.
Addressing participants, the Acting Zonal Director of the EFCC, Assistant Commander of the EFCC (ACE I) Austine S. Adache, said the initiative was in line with the directive of the EFCC Chairman, Mr. Ola Olukoyede, who emphasized prioritizing the Commission’s preventive mandate.
“The Executive Chairman of the EFCC has directed that the Commission gives priority to its preventive mandate, as it is cheaper and more effective to prevent fraud than to prosecute it,” Adache said.
“We are here to strengthen the existing synergy and to sensitize your staff on land scam, which our investigations show is the predominant scam in the state.”
He called on GOGIS to continue supporting the EFCC through intelligence sharing and collaboration, noting that effective partnership among stakeholders was critical to fighting economic crimes.
In his presentation titled “Land Fraud Experience in Gombe State: The Prevention Strategy”, Superintendent of the EFCC (SE) Samuel Ajayi outlined the various modalities through which land fraud is perpetrated, including multiple allocations, forgery of land documents, and illegal encroachments.
Ajayi also offered practical recommendations on how the state can reduce the incidence of land-related crimes, including proper digitization of land records, verification procedures, and real-time inter-agency data sharing.
In his response, the Director General of GOGIS, Dr. Kabiru Hassan, commended the EFCC for the initiative and expressed confidence that the renewed alliance would yield positive results in the fight against land fraud.
“This kind of collaboration is timely and necessary. It will go a long way in curbing land scam in Gombe State. We look forward to more engagements of this nature,” Hassan stated.
