LEA TRIP TO LAGOS CONFIRMS FAILURES, REVEALS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ABUJA 000260 SIPDIS SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED FOR INL/AAE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: SNAR KCRM PREL PGOV EFIN PINR NI SUBJECT: LEA TRIP TO LAGOS CONFIRMS FAILURES, REVEALS OPPORTUNITIES FOR FUTURE LAW ENFORCEMENT PROJECTS ¶1. SBU - Entire Text ¶2. SUMMARY: LEA Downey's Jan 20-28 trip to Lagos confirmed the failures of several INL-sponsored law enforcement projects but also revealed possibilities and opportunities for future programs. Joint and integrated projects, incorporating NGOs and private sector elements, along with GON agencies, could offer much greater prospects for success of USG-GON law enforcement projects than working with GON agencies alone. END SUMMARY ¶3. INL Law Enforcement Advisor traveled to Lagos Jan 20-28 for orientation and meetings with Nigerian officials in agencies receiving USG-INL assistance. In addition to NDLEA Chairman Giade and key senior NDLEA staff (septel),LEA met with the following: Victor Cole-Showers - NDLEA Commander, Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Bello Idris - NDLEA Asst Commander/Director of Operations, MMIA Ralph Igwenagu - NDLEA Commander, Tincan Island, Apapa Port Harun Abu Gagara - NDLEA Asst Commander, Tincan Island Yomi Onashile - Commissioner, NPF, INTERPOL Chris Ola - Commisioner, NPF, Special Fraud Unit (SFU) Ikoyi Ibrahim Lamorde - Director of Operations, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Ikoyi LEA also met socially with the following to discuss banking, money-laundering and fraud issues: Atedo Peterside - CEO and principal shareholder IBTC Adekunle Adeosun - Group Head, Institutional Banking Group, Ecobank Philip Ikeazor, General Manager, Offshore Banking, United Bank for Africa (UBA) In addition, LEA met with Peter Kristiansen, Head of Dracon International in Lagos, a Swiss company providing security services including document fraud recognition for several international airlines operating in Nigeria. ¶4. Victor Cole-Showers conducted LEA and Lagos INL staff on a tour of NDLEA facilities at MMIA, including the x-ray machine and itemizers. As with his colleagues at NDLEA headquarters, Cole-Showers also complained of budget woes at NDLEA. He lamented the lack of consumables necessary to effectively use the itemizers and assured LEA that if consumables were forthcoming, he would ensure that the machines were properly used. Although new in his position (he and Bello Idris had just been transferred to the airport from HQ when former Chairman Lafiagi was sacked),Cole- Showers occupied the same position for a short period during MG Bamayai's tenure at NDLEA. Like many of his colleagues, he extolled Bamayai's virtues and expressed satisfaction that someone like him, (read Giade) was back at the helm of NDLEA. Cole-Showers assured LEA of complete cooperation. ¶5. As unimpressive as NDLEA's MMIA operation was, the Apapa port operations were even less so. Iwenagu and Gagara were pleasant, engaging and accommodating but appeared to be especially ineffective, perhaps due to no fault of their own. Their facilities are totally inadequate and they have virtually no equipment for either conducting or tracking operations. Even the vehicle provided by INL was inoperative since the keys had been lost. When LEA mentioned the benchmark requiring NDLEA to begin conducting seaport operations (State 8163),Gagara nodded in agreement, but it appears clear that without a massive influx of aid and constant pressure and supervision, there will be no improvement. ¶6. Force CID HQs was only slightly less discouraging. Although commissioner Onashile did have an adequate office (unlike NDLEA at the port),INL-provided computer equipment was haphazardly stacked elsewhere in the building gathering dust. The building next door was observed with most of its roof destroyed by a fire over a year. Again very pleasant, Onashile articulated the need for additional assistance but appeared lackadaisical, disengaged and unconcerned. ¶7. In contrast to Onashile's aloofness, SFU Commissioner Chris Ola was positively demoralized. Although Ola appears to have made a genuine effort to utilize INL aid effectively, his organization has been decimated and rendered almost irrelevant by the creation of EFCC. Ola noted that most of the best officers had been redeployed to EFCC and that SFU casework has been hampered by the transfer of files to EFCC. He said that since SFU has been given no new cases, he has opened several old cases to keep his organization engaged. Ola's hope is that there will be a division of labor between EFCC and SFU and that even if the former handles Nigeria's marquee cases, SFU will still have a role in investigating and prosecuting more routine and lower level cases. ¶8. The bright spot of the trip was Ibrahim Lamorde and EFCC. Vivacious, dynamic, engaging and apparently a man of action, Lamorde has impressed FBI Lagos with his commitment and abilities. With newly refurbished and impressively equipped facilities, along with the cream of the NPF at his disposal, it is no wonder. EFCC is clearly Nigeria's marquee law enforcement and investigative agency and clearly has the budget and other resources as befits such a status. Unfortunately, its creation has rendered most of the other agencies, with the possible exception of the NDLEA, stepchildren. There is little doubt that EFCC will benefit from and properly use any and all assistance we can provide. In doing so, however, it is likely to render the other agencies, such as the SFU, irrelevant. To the extent that it creates internecine rivalry among organizations it could ultimately become a victim of its own success. The trick will be to minimize the competition and integrate EFCC with the others to create the synergy needed to combat Nigeria's woes. 9 A key element in combating financial crime and fraud in Nigeria is its increasingly more sophisticated banking system. Less than 15 years ago, virtually all banking in Nigeria was done manually on yellow legal pads, thereby facilitating money laundering and other irregularities, both imaginable and unimaginable. According to the bankers with whom LEA spoke, that has all changed. Although some smaller banks apparently are still less than fully automated, most are. Nigeria's bankers are much more sophisticated as well. Peterside, a long time friend of LEA founded IBTC in the early nineties. It rapidly became one the nation's largest and most important investment banks and just recently merged with two retail banks. According to Peterside, his bank has gone from 50 employees to over 1000 and is fully automated. Adeosun attended university in the U.S. and spent 22 years with Bankers' Trust in New York prior to returning to Nigeria several years ago. UBA's Ikeazor is organizing a seminar on money laundering for late March. Operations of both Ecobank and UBA, like IBTC, are fully transparent. In addition to law enforcement agencies at post, LEA will consult with econ personnel regularly to try to determine more and better ways to utilize financial and other money handling organizations to achieve USG law enforcement goals. ¶10. Dracon International's Peter Kristiansen, a Dane but Swiss resident, has been in Nigeria for over 7 years. According to a former DEA agent who also has his own security agency in Nigeria, Kristiansen is an internationally recognized expert on document fraud. He currently provides security services for several airlines at primarily MMIA and is intimately familiar with airport operations. Kristiansen could be a major asset if we decide to step up NDLEA airport operations at Nigeria's airports. ¶11. COMMENT: It is clear that piecemeal law enforcement and counter-narcotics assistance to select beneficiaries in Nigeria has produced little if any tangible results. It is also clear that with political will, as demonstrated by EFCC, Nigeria can accomplish a great deal. Hopefully, under Chairman Giade, the NDLEA will now exhibit the same political will. To the extent possible, we should give him the benefit of the doubt. ¶12. We also should not hesitate to enlist private sector organizations, as well as NGO and expat organizations, in implementing our programs. Training GON personnel who then rotate to other posts, creating the need for more training, is not serving anyone's interest. Among other thin, a time frame should be agreed upon in which a trained law enforcement officer should remain at his/her post after training. Providing equipment to one or two subordinate locations like SFU or INTERPOL which are not integrated with broader operations is futile. While the itemizers at the airport may have been a bust because the GON has failed to use them or provide consumables, it would appear to be in our interest to keep them working. Perhaps we could do so with an organization such as Dracon International. ¶13. However we decide to proceed, we need to pay close attention to our own community policing program which aims at enlisting all the stakeholders involved. The more integrated our efforts and the more "buy in" we can get from the GON side, the more likely we will be able to achieve our aims. CAMPBELL