Money laundering & sponsoring of violence: EFCC, IGP stage surveillance on Governors
…More Govs on watch list — EFCC Boss
…As IGP says Police in custody of reports of Govs sponsoring violence
…ICPC recovers N117bn in 8 months from antigraft war
State Governors are under surveillance of anti-graft agencies in the Country over suspected cases of stashing of cash, as well as sponsoring of political violence ahead of the 2023 General Elections, authorities of anti-graft agencies and the Nigeria Police have disclosed.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, on Thursday in Abuja briefed President Muhammadu Buhari on the activities of the Commission, disclosing to journalists that more Governors are under watch list over money laundering. The EFCC Boss who briefed State House correspondents following his meeting with the President, disclosed that, above the three earlier mentioned, more Governors have been included in the surveillance of the Commission for suspected cases of money laundering.
The EFCC Boss, however urged Nigerian citizens to partner with the Commission in exposing corrupt politicians hiding huge amounts of cash for selfish motive.
“We are monitoring everything, Nigerians are helping. Well, I don’t want to give you the figures so that you will not go and speculate whether they are in the North or in the South, but it’s important that Nigerians key into it,” he said.
Although he did not give the actual number of the Governors in question, under the EFCC surveillance, reports that some Governors, including that of Zamfara, Bello Matawalle, had challenged the EFCC to search his property over allegation that a “humongous amount of money for laundering through cash payment of salaries,” had been discovered in one of his residences.
Matawalle made the offer in a statement issued by the State Commissioner for Information, Alhaji Ibrahim Dosara.
On the new Naira notes redesigning project, the EFCC Boss on Thursday applauded the policy, describing it as a significant process in the fight against financial crimes and other forms of corruption.
Noting that the huge amount of the Country’s currency that has left the hold of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) makes trailing financial crimes difficult, he said that redesigning Naira would provide opportunity for the government to regain control over flow of cash in the Country.
“You know that there is an obligation of money laundering law that we have, in which an individual is expected to carry out a transaction that is above N5 million Naira, through the financial institution.
“There is also the threshold in which a corporate entity is expected to carry out transactions that is above N10 million in the financial sector and why is it so?
“It is so because financial institutions are expected to be making currency transaction reports, and suspicious transaction reports to relevant agencies. With that, institutions like us will be able to monitor which funds are legitimate and which ones are not.
“Here we are now, in which 85 per cent of our currency is out in circulation and people are carrying out transactions above the thresholds as provided for by this provision over and above that we will not be able to monitor, we don’t know what they’re doing,” he said.
He described the transactions as creating and giving avenue to other forms of crime, including payment of ransom, banditry, bribery and other illicit financial flows.
“So, we are happy with this naira redesign in the sense that it will give the Central Bank an opportunity of going back to square one; by the time they collect all these monies back to their system, then they are going to control the money that they are doing to release to the system.
“Then, of course, once the monies are back within the financial institution, it will help to further boost economic activities in the sense that there will be more money for people to borrow.
“Then, we on our own part, we’ll have the avenue of monitoring what we are doing with all these huge resources that are out there, within the financial institutions.
“So it is a good thing for all of us, for the entire country and that is why we are calling on Nigerians to embrace the policy, to thank the President for coming up with this and then of course, to champion the cause of the successful implementation of this Naira redesign,” he said.
On money politics, he appealed to politicians to desist from using illegitimate funds to finance campaigns.
“For politicians, the message is very clear, of course you know, they should sell themselves, they should talk about issues.
“We want to hear about how they are going to solve the problems, not what the problems are. I think it is very important and I think they are doing that.
“And then of course, we encourage that they shouldn’t use illegitimate funds in their campaign finances and all of that,” he said.
….IGP says Police in custody of reports of Govs sponsoring violence
This is just as the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Usman Alkali Baba has alleged that some Governors are influencing political violence ahead of the 2023 elections.
The IGP who made the allegation speaking at a meeting with political parties and other stakeholders at the force headquarters in Abuja, said the Police have been receiving reports of some State Governors encouraging use of political thugs and sub-national security outfits under their control to disrupt seamless and statutorily guaranteed campaign activities of parties or candidates in the opposition.
He said some Governors were guilty of using thugs to sponsor such unlawful acts as preventing mounting of campaign billboards or pulling them down, denying political opponents of spaces to undertake their campaigns or peaceful political congregations, which according to him were acts in contravention of the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022.
“In so doing, they deploy their powers and influences to either prevent the mounting of campaign billboards or pull them down, while also denying political opponents of spaces to undertake their campaigns or peaceful political congregations in contravention of the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022,” he said.
The IGP who said the Force was putting in place measures to combat all forms of political violence ahead of the 2023 election process, identified heightened intelligence activity and increased deployment of security teams to all assets and facilities of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) nationwide, as some of the measures the Force is putting in place.
He affirmed prompt action of the Police to arrest and prosecute persons found to have perpetuated electoral violence.
….ICPC recovers N117bn in 8 months from anti-graft war
Meanwhile as fight against corruption in the Country subsist, the Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye, has disclosed that the Commission recovered over N117 billion in eight months – January and August.
The ICPC Boss according to the Commission’s Spokesperson, Mrs Azuka Ogugua, in a statement on Thursday, made the disclosure before the House of Representatives’ Committees on Anti-corruption and Appropriation during the Commission’s defence of its 2023 Budget Proposal in Abuja,
According to the statement, while speaking on the 2022 budget performance, the Chairman gave a breakdown of the recoveries to include N1.413bn and $225,965 in ICPC/TSA recovery account and N1.264bn cash through tax intervention.
Other recoveries included plots of land, completed buildings, vehicles, electronics and jewelries valued at N679.13m, N2.603bn, N81.1m, N1.55m and N195,500.
The ICPC Boss added that the Commission restrained N49.9bn through System Study and Review intervention; N6.435bn cash through budget tracking; N53.91bn through ICPC advisory and N614.2m in other accounts.
Apart from the recoveries, the Chairman also highlighted other accomplishments of the Commission during the 2022 budget cycle to include completion of 672 investigations and 565 non-petition-led investigations.
“Securing of 15 convictions; 538 projects tracked under Constituency and Executive Projects Tracking Initiative (CEPTI); deployment of Ethics and Integrity Compliance Scorecard on 260 MDAs; Review of Open Treasury Portal in 30 MDAs were also accomplished.
“System Study and Review of 10 MDAs; inauguration of 26 Anti-Corruption and Transparency Units (ACTUs); 14 Corruption Monitoring activities undertaken; and public enlightenment and education of Nigerians on and against corruption through various platforms,” were further performed.
