EFCC chairman Magu charges banks on money laundering and terrorist financing
Acting chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ibrahim Magu has called on financial institutions in the country to desist from laundering illicit funds for corrupt politicians and criminals.
EFCC spokesperson, Tony Orilade said Magu gave the charge during the general meeting of the Association of Chief Compliance Officers of Banks In Nigeria, ACCOBIN, which held in Lagos.
He said many politicians, who had stolen the nation’s commonwealth, had begun to repatriate the stolen funds to the country for the purpose of influencing the elections through vote buying and compromise of election officers.
The EFCC chair also charged members of the group to join hands with the Commission to ensure that the coming election was not compromised, adding that the impact could be grievous and devastating.
He said: “We are all under a civic duty to comply with our various responsibilities and ensure that we do the needful to obey the laws and regulations governing the elections.”
He added that political inducement had now taken other forms and tagged in different names such as “stomach Infrastructure”, “empowerment schemes”, “non-interest yielding loans” and “outright cash handouts”, among others.
He added that no country could combat the flow of illicit funds without the cooperation of financial institutions, adding that “in most cases, it is the financial institutions that provide the means, logistics and strategy for the criminals to thread on.”
He said investigations revealed that foreign properties bought with proceeds of crime were sold, and the proceeds transferred to Nigeria through international banks as legitimate funds that could be used to finance several activities including elections.
He said: “Goods bought with proceeds of crime abroad are sent to Nigeria to support empowerment programmes during election periods.
“The goods are mostly cleared with deficient trade documents processed through the international banks.”
Source: Leadership
