Institute advocates use of science and tech

Dr Victoria Enape, Protem President, Chartered Institute of Forensic and Investigate Professionals of Nigeria (CIFIPN), says the use of science and technology is critical in the fight against corruption in the country.

She said this at an induction ceremony for no fewer than 50 new members of Institute in Abuja.

According to her, lack of enough evidence gathering using science and technology before prosecution, had caused the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to lose some cases in the court.

Enape, who stated that evidence gathering was important for any investigation to be successful, added that the institute on its part, will continue to assist the government in the fight against corruption.

“The institute is assisting in the war against corruption in Nigeria, this is due to the fact that lack of evidence has resulted in several cases being lost.

“Crime scene investigation is a crucial area we are educating our members on.

“By a thorough investigation on a crime scene by a forensic professional, he or she will be able to unravel everything.

“Evidence is key in every trial and the duty of the Institute is to educate members on how to preserve evidence and analyse it before presentation,” she said.

Enape further explained that the institute would continue to train members on ways to conduct thorough evidence based investigation using the “Fraud Triangle”.

“Financial crimes investigatio is not all we train our members on now, we have cyber crimes, internet fraud, kidnapping and many more but our training has enabled us to trace any of these crimes,” she added.

Enape also admonished the new inductees to be professional in their job while threatening also to withdraw their certificates if found compromising or involved in fraudulent practices.

Mr Bashiru Babajo, Executive Director of Operations, Nigeria Agricultural Insurance Corporation, who spoke on behalf of the new inductees, said that the training they had received would impact positively on the economy.

“No doubt, we have challenges due to obsolete technology we have now, so we have to be on same level with the western world,” he said.