By Emmanuel Afonne
Mrs Victoria Enape, a forensic expert, has pleaded with President Muhammadu Buhari to sign into law the Forensic Bill passed by both chambers of the National Assembly.
Enape, the Pro tem President, Chartered Institute of Forensic and Investigative Professionals of Nigeria (CIFIPN), made the plea in Abuja at a two-day training/induction organised for new members of the institute.
She said that the new dimension of fraud and cybercrime in the country had become worrisome.
The CIFIPN boss said that urgent intervention of Mr President was needed for the bill to become a law to enable its local investigators to swing into action.
“The emergence of forensic and investigative Profession on the global scene was based on the realisation that fraudsters had gone sophisticated.
“Fraudsters had in some instances taken advantage of the 21st century digital revolution to perpetrate fraud that was hitherto undetectable by normal investigation.
“Major accounting and auditing scandals which lead to the collapse of corporate giants in the U.S. and parts of Europe compelled many corporate organisations in Europe to introduce forensic and investigative profession,’’ she said.
The expert noted that the measure had become the best approach to the new face of combating fraud and Cyber Crimes.
“The landscape for forensic and investigative professionals around many nations of the world today is changing in response to the challenge of technology enabled–fraud.
“The resultant effect is that there is presently a dearth of forensic and investigative professionals in Nigeria to offer professional support in the mining of evidence needed for the prevention, detection and prosecution of fraudsters.
“Nigeria currently spends huge scarce foreign exchange to retain the services of expatriate forensic professionals to carry out assignments that are better performed by locally-trained manpower,” Enape said.
According to her, President Buhari knows the importance of forensic investigation and as such, his call for forensic audit of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
“If forensic is not important in Nigeria, why is Mr President calling for forensic audit of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and how is government going to handle it.
“We call on the federal government to do the needful on forensic bill.
“Government should not listen to sentiments and parochial interests of some groups of persons who should rather join hands with us to stop our common enemies who have put Nigeria in a sorry state all these years,” Enape said.
She explained that CIFIPN would provide the legal framework for the registration, training, regulation and certification of practitioners in line with global best practices.
According to her, membership of the body cuts across different profession such as Law, Criminology, Accounting, Taxation, police detectives, Security experts, and so on. (NAN)