ABUJA — Director- General of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Mr. Emmanuel Akomaye, said yesterday, that the organization was worried over the estimated $170 billion stashed abroad by Nigerians. He told journalists in an interview, however, that the Commission has not got any mandate from government to investigate either those who own the funds or their sources. "Well there is no categorization (which account was funded through legitimate earnings or corruption). Our worry is that even if the money is from legitimate means, we shouldn’t have that huge amount of money stashed abroad when we are junketing from one nation to another for investment funds.
"Our people can as well bring part of that money home and invest it at home", he said, explaining however, that "there is no mandate (for the commission) to the ownership."
Speaking earlier at the opening of a three-day meeting of Inter-Governmental Action Group Against Money Laundering in Africa, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Masari, called for a broad-based legislation which would be inclusive of not only money laundering but against siphoning of public funds from Africa to the developed economies of the world.
Speaking on the huge deposits by Nigerians in offshore banks, Alhaji Masari who was represented by the Deputy Speaker, Hon. Austen Okpara, said "some of the money may be legitimate but a good percentage of it, however, is no doubt as a result of public corruption.
"I urge you (legal experts) therefore to deliberate on this issue so that the recommended legislation would capture a broader good governance standpoint and discourage the plundering of public funds."
According to him, the war against money laundering was global owing to the cross border nature of its perpetrators and as such required bilateral cooperation among countries of various regions of the world.
In his own address, EFCC chairman, Alhaji Nuhu Ribadu said that the meeting was to fashion out a harmonized legislation for the West African sub-region aimed at making it impossible for cross border financial criminals to hide in any part of the sub-region.
"ECOWAS mission to promote economic integration in all fields of economic activity, particularly industry, transport, telecommunications, energy, agriculture, natural resources, commerce, monetary and financial questions, social and cultural matters is at risk of being derailed severely, especially with regards to international trade and cooperation, if the menace of money laundering, economic and financial crimes is not effectively checked", the EFCC boss said.
In a message to the meeting, chairman of the Nigeria Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Dr. Bello Lafiagi, disclosed that Nigerian money launderers have now run into the nation’s neighbouring states since the laws in the countries were not strong enough to discourage them.
His words, "Nigeria has addressed the scourge of drug trafficking substantially through effective interdiction efforts. This accounts for the influx of Nigerians into our neighbouring countries where they carry out their nefarious activities".
According to him, the Financial Action Task Force has approved the nation’s anti-money laundering law and has therefore asked the Federal Government to submit an implementation plan towards delisting Nigeria from the list of non-cooperating countries and territories.
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