The Economic and Financial Crimes Commissions, EFCC and Nigerian Financial
\nIntelligence Unit, NFIU, are at loggerhead over attempts to destroy files
\nof corrupt politicians and high profile members of the society under
\ninvestigations.<\/p>\n
The Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) is the Nigeria arm of the
\nglobal financial intelligence unit (FIU) and is presently domiciled within
\nthe Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as an autonomous Unit.<\/p>\n
No fewer than ten heavily armed mobile Policemen are presently occupying
\nthe premises of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU),
\nrestraining her officers from entering the office Complex to perform their
\nlawful duties.<\/p>\n
Sources within the Unit, who confirmed the report to our Correspondent
\nfrowned at what they described as intimidation to cover up corruption by
\nthe Chairman of the Commission, Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde.<\/p>\n
They however accused the Policemen of attempting to forcefully gain access
\nto the Unit\u2019s offices to destroy useful evidence gathered for the
\nprosecution of certain very important cases of corruption and terrorism.<\/p>\n
Commenting on the development, a legal practitioner, Prosper Robinson
\ndescribed the situation as unfortunate.<\/p>\n
He condemned what he described as impunity in defense of corruption by the
\npresent EFCC leadership and called on the President to take urgent steps
\nto sanitize the Commission.<\/p>\n
Continuing, Robinson lamented that the development is capable of putting
\nspanners on the progress made in the war against money laundering and
\nterrorism in Nigeria, a feat that got Nigeria delisted from the list of
\nhigh risk countries by the global money laundering watchdog-Financial
\nAction Task Force recently.<\/p>\n
He insisted, \u201cNFIU should serve all law enforcement Agencies and not just
\nEFCC. The fact that it is domiciled in EFCC does not give the Commission
\ntotal control over NFIU.\u201d<\/p>\n
The setting up of the NFIU is part of the efforts of the federal
\ngovernment in combating money laundering and the financing of terrorist
\nactivities in Nigeria, and as a precondition for the removal of Nigeria
\nfrom the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) list of Non-cooperation
\ncountries and territories (NCCTs).<\/p>\n
This development appears to have confirmed the long held position by
\nstakeholders that the aim of establishing the NFIU may not be fully
\nachieved if it does not operate independently; a situation that informed
\nthe initiation of the NFIU autonomy Bill pending at the National Assembly.<\/p>\n
The NFIU autonomy Bill seeks to establish the Nigerian Financial
\nIntelligence Agency as the central body in Nigeria responsible for
\nreceiving, requesting, analyzing and disseminating financial and other
\ninformation to all law enforcement and security agencies and other
\nrelevant authorities.<\/p>\n
All efforts to reach both the NFIU Director and EFCC Spokesman for
\ncomments proved abortive, as their lines could not be reached.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commissions, EFCC and Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, NFIU, are at loggerhead over attempts to destroy files of corrupt politicians and high profile members of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n