This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

031000Z Feb 06

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