The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) announced yesterday that politicians who launder money through their lawyers, bank account managers, precious stone dealers, and other Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions (DNFBPs) can no longer operate as usual.
The anti-graft agency announced plans to beam its searchlight on those aiding financial crimes.
Its Chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa, said the agency was stepping up its probe of the DNFBPs through its Special Control Unit Against Money Laundering (SCUML) under the newly enacted Money Laundering Prohibition and Prevention Act, 2022.
Bawa, who announced that the commission had recorded over 2,701 convictions as of October 7, up from the 2,220 convictions recorded in 2021, renewed the agency’s commitment to fighting all forms of economic crimes.
The EFCC boss spoke in Lagos during a one-day workshop on financial crime reporting organised by the commission for journalists.
Addressing participants through an e-conference platform, he described the conviction rate as the agency’s highest ever.
He said the commission had also recovered assets running into several billions of naira.
On the conviction rate, Bawa said: “Without sounding immodest, our record over the years distinguishes the EFCC as perhaps the most effective law enforcement agency in Nigeria. We have strived to up the ante since my appointment over one year ago.
“In my time in charge, we have engineered a number of reforms and restructuring whose impact is already being seen in the terms of the number of stolen assets recovery and convictions for financial crimes.
“In 2021, the Commission secured 2,220 convictions. This has jumped to 2,701 by October 7, 2022. Assets running into several billions of Naira have also been recovered by the commission.”
He said how the right information from public members can curb financial crimes: “It is for this reason we are intensifying our public enlightenment engagements which, in a few weeks, will witness the formal launch of the EFCC Radio.”
