The Attorney General of the
Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), on Wednesday accused
the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and its Acting Chairman,
Ibrahim Magu, of frustrating the Federal Government’s anti-graft war.
Malami, in a statement issued
in Abuja, alleged that Magu and the EFCC leadership have “manipulated and
misused intelligence to the detriment of the fight against corruption and
financial crimes in Nigeria.”
He also accused them of
working to prevent the lifting of the country’s suspension by the global
financial intelligence gathering body – Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence
Units (Egmont Group) and ensure the country’s formal expulsion.
The Egmont Group, currently
made up of 156 Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs), representing 156 countries,
serves as a platform for exchange of expertise and financial intelligence to
combat money laundering and terrorist financing and functions as the
operational arm of the international anti-money laundering and counter
financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) apparatus.
Nigeria, represented in the
group by the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), was suspended on June
1, 2007 because the NFIU lacks independence and was subject to the control of
the EFCC via the provision of the Section 1(2)(c) of the EFCC Act.
The group demanded autonomy
for NFIU as a condition for the country’s readmission, failing which it would
be expelled.
Since the nation’s
suspension, Malami and Magu have been unable to agree on how to meet the
condition set by the Egmont Group for the country’s readmission.
While the AGF wants the
creation of an autonomous NFIU, detached from the EFCC, and has send a Bill to
the National Assembly to that effect, Magu wants NFIU to remain part of EFCC,
but with mere re-organisation of its operations.
In the statement issued for
the AGF by his spokesman, Comrade Salihu Othman Isah, Malami frowned at Magu’s
hard stance on the issue and noted that the uncooperative attitude of EFCC’s
leadership could encourage the Egmont Group to carry out its threat to expel
the country.
Malami regretted that Magu
appeared not to understand the implication of Nigeria’s expulsion from the
group on government’s efforts to combat corruption, terrorism, money laundering
and other related vices.
The AGF, who insisted on
ensuring the separation of NFIU from the EFCC, praised the Senate for passing
the Bill for an independent NFIU and urged the House of Representatives to
urgently pass similar Bill currently pending before it.
The statement reads: “The
EFCC is now in a state of paranoia, as it dreads the effort of the government
to have an independent NFIU, which it has stood against stoically since 2006.
“As it presently stands, the
NFIU staff are all deployed by the EFCC to serve in the interest of whoever is
its current Chairman. This has to stop if it must conform to the new thinking
and global best practice. Nigeria cannot be an island of its own. It cannot
fight corruption in isolation.
“The threat of expulsion from
the Egmont Group calls for a thorough review of the NFIU and the manner in
which the EFCC leadership has manipulated and misused intelligence to the
detriment of the fight against corruption and financial crime in Nigeria.
“To achieve the desired goal,
NFIU needs to stand alone as an agency with full complements of power to
recruit its staff and an annual budgetary allocation guaranteed for its
operations.
“Its independence must be
ascertained in the new law to set up Nigerian Financial Intelligence Agency
(NFIA) to enable it carry out its mandate, which shall include responsibilities
for receiving, requesting, analysing and disseminating financial intelligence
reports on money laundering, terrorist financing and other relevant information
to law enforcement, security and intelligence agencies, and other relevant
authorities.”
Twitter: @naijapoliticko
Source; thenationonlineng
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