President of Nigeria Musa Yar'Adua

The government of the United States of America has further blacklisted Nigeria following recent avalanche of money laundering activities and illegal drug trafficking by governors, top government functionaries and influential private citizens. Nigerian Banks are also accused of active connivance.

Only recently, UBA, a Nigerian bank was fined $5.3 Million for alleged illegal activities bothering on money laundering by the U.S treasury department.

A U.S State Department memo obtained exclusively by pointblanknews.com alleged that “Individuals and criminal organizations have taken advantage of the country’s location, weak laws, systemic corruption, lack of enforcement, and poor economic conditions to strengthen their ability to perpetrate all manner of financial crimes at home and abroad.”

In the last few months elected officials and political appointees like Deprieye Alamieyesiegha, Femi Fani-Kayode, Tony Anenih, Cairo Ojougboh, Peter Odili, James Ibori, Saminu Turaki, Lucky Igbinedion, Orji Uzor Kalu, Victor Attah among others have all been alleged to have illegally ferried huge amount of money running into Billions of Dollars to various countries.

A notable prince of one of the most powerful Monarchical stools was busted with hard drugs. A leading actress was also caught with drugs on her way to England. While the drug couriers were tried and jailed, many of Nigeria’s political office holders are presently facing one charge or the other in respect of money laundering.

The memo noted that “Nigerian criminal organizations have proven adept at devising new ways of subverting international and domestic law enforcement efforts and evading detection.”

The memo which has since been forwarded to President George Bush which in turn would made available to the Congress noted that “Their success in avoiding detection and prosecution has led to an increase in many types of financial crimes, including bank fraud, real estate fraud, identity theft, and advance fee fraud. Despite years of government effort to counter rampant crime and corruption, Nigerians continue to be plagued by crime.”

Although the memo was silent on those involved in money laundering and narcotics, it stressed that “the complex nature of money laundering transactions today makes it difficult in many cases to distinguish the proceed of other serious crime,” adding that “financial institutions engaging in transactions involving significant amount of proceeds of other serious crimes are vulnerable to narcotic related money laundering.”

The memo which frowned at illegal activities of some Nigerian banks noted that while money laundering is not only peculiar to Nigerian politicians, “Nigerian has continued to remained among countries whose financial institutions engage in currency transactions involving significant amounts of proceeds from international narcotics.”

Harping on the failure of Nigeria to adhere to the international counter-narcotic agreement, the memo advocated for the improvement of the Nigerian Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA and other relevant agencies in fighting drugs and financial crimes.

“We urge Nigeria to continue improving the effectiveness of NDLEA and in particular, improve enforcement operations at major airports, seaports and against major drug kingpins, to include targeting their financial assets.”