As the 2023 electioneering campaigns have kicked off, the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa, has disclosed that the commission was beaming it searchlights on some politicians.
Mr Bawa stated this on Tuesday in Lagos during a one-day workshop on financial crimes’ reporting organised for some journalists by the commission.
According to him, the commission was also paying serious attention to the activities of some lawyers, car dealers, estate operators, precious stone dealers, accountants, and construction companies amongst others.
The EFCC boss disclosed that investigations had revealed that these agents have become channels of money laundering.
The chairman, therefore, urged journalists to get familiar with the new money laundering law so as not to run afoul of its provisions and to help educate other citizens.
“I am sure that most of us are aware of the legislative reforms that recently birthed the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.
“There are certain provisions of this new law that I believe will affect you directly or indirectly. One is secrecy of financial transactions.
“The new law criminalises the operation of numbered accounts and also mandates financial institutions to ascertain the beneficial owners of accounts before opening such accounts,” he noted.
The participants were drawn from the crime, the judiciary and the financial beats.
Papers were presented on the challenges of prosecuting economic and financial crimes in Nigeria, best practices in financial crimes’ reporting and peculiarities, trends, typologies and the challenges of cybercrimes’ enforcement in Nigeria.
