The Post Master General and Chief Executive of the Nigerian Postal Service NIPOST, Mr Ismail Adebayo Adewusi has reiterated his desire to strengthen ties with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC, for the mutual benefit of the Agencies and the country.
Adewusi who stated this during a courtesy visit to the EFCC headquarters in Abuja, noted that the NIPOST has over the years, worked closely with the EFCC.
“We have recovered many financial instruments including fake Credit Cards and counterfeit currencies which were impounded and returned to the EFCC”, he said.
He said though NIPOST has recorded tremendous growth, it is still beset by challenges occasioned by technological changes which disrupted its services as it also created opportunities.
The NIPOST boss disclosed that his agency recently perfected address verification which he said will help security agencies in checking the address of suspects.
Adewusi further sought the intervention of the EFCC boss in tracking and reporting on the status of cases of theft by officials of the agency which were reported to the Commission
The EFCC Chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa expressed appreciation to the Post Master General for his visit and good wishes.
Recalling the history of collaboration between the EFCC and NIPOST, Bawa said he could remember as a young officer in Lagos that the Commission (NIPOST) and the US Postal Inspection Service usually carried out mail interdiction exercises which led to the recovery of several scam mails and the impounding of counterfeit financial instruments.
He however observed that unlike in the past, when NIPOST would intercept scam mails and counterfeit financial instruments and send them to the Commission, “we are not seeing them again. Look at this for us, so that we can reap the benefit of your international mail processing centre”.
Challenges
Bawa also noted certain challenges in mail handing which he would like the Post Master General to address.
This he said, include delays in the delivery of mail and the non-delivery of others on the grounds that address could not be traced.
The EFCC Chairman commended the innovation by the NIPOST in the verification of addresses, saying that the Commission would key into the programme to verify address of suspects and even staff members.
He assured that the Commission will continue to patronize NIPOST.
“It is our desire to patronize government organizations and we are glad that you are here to strengthen our relationship which has been around for years. We will have to work on some strategic ways to sustain the benefit of our collaboration to enable us achieve our mandate with ease,” Bawa said.
Nneka Ukachukwu
