PRESS RELEASE
September 3 , 2008
RETURN ALL LAUNDERED MONEY, BANKOLE URGES FOREIGN NATIONS
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Dimeji Bankole has
called on developed countries where stolen fund are laundered in secret
bank accounts to compel their financial institutions to return all
laundered fund to their original source as a way of fighting money laundry
globally.
Speaking at a two-day retreat organized by Association of Certified
Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (National Assembly Caucus) in
association with National Democratic Institute (NDI), Rt. Hon. Bankole
said that foreign nations should not just be accusing Nigerians of
involvement in money laundering without demonstrating total commitment
against the practice.
The Speaker promised that the legislature will always support
anti-corruption measures adding that the legislature will pass relevant
laws to tackle the increasingly sophisticated and globalize nature of
money laundering.
Rt. Hon. Bankole called on anti-corruption agencies like EFCC, ICPC to
intensify their efforts in tackling corruption among executive agencies of
government instead of incessant harassment of law-makers that does not
execute projects where billions are committed.
He recalled that in time past fund like the N450 billion unspent budgetary
fund from 2007 budget discovered by the legislators, the N1.7 Trillion
generated by revenue generating agencies that could not be accounted for
must have be launder in foreign banks adding that the House of
Representatives has assisted in curbing corruption and money laundering.
Earlier on, Mr. Abdurahman Mustapha, an anti-money laundering expert at
EFCC stated that the problem of money laundering is a global one that
transcends international borders adding that the sophisticated nature of
the crime requires a holistic approach to combat and thereby checkmate its
effects including terrorist financing.
Chief Kayode Odunaro
Special Adviser, Communications to the Hon. Speaker
House of Representatives.
September 3, 2008