The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Garba Shehu, has said that new executive orders will be issued to tackle international fraud.
His comments came a few days after the United States authorities announced charges against 80 people, mostly Nigerians, in a wide-ranging fraud and money laundering operation that netted millions of dollars from victims of internet con jobs.
Reacting to the development, Shehu who was a guest last night on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, said the present administration would work with all nations around the globe to fight criminality.
“The government will generate and ask for new laws from the National Assembly and there will be new executive orders that will block some of these loopholes that have been exploited by our fellow countrymen to go out there and embarrass and black-paint the country,” he said.
The president’s media aide said, “every citizen of this country who travels out of the country, is required to obey the laws of their host countries,” adding that “the government would not stand in the way of the justice system.”
He further stressed that President Muhammadu Buhari is not one to excuse Nigerians from obeying laws of the country in which they reside.
Speaking about the negative impact and stigma which the recent bust by the FBI might have, Shehu said, “the action of a single Nigerian is not the action of all Nigerians”.
He also stated that Nigerians are hardworking and honest people, and as such cannot all be termed fraudulent just because of the misdeeds of a very few.
The United States Department of Justice had indicted a total of 80 people, mostly Nigerians, in connection to massive fraud and money laundering.
A spokesperson for the US Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, Thom Mrozek, had disclosed last Thursday that 14 suspects were arrested in raids carried out across the US
He added that two defendants were already in federal custody on other charges, and one was arrested earlier last week.
Source: THISDAY
