Naira redesign: Number of governors under watch rising ― EFCC

Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, has said that the number of governors being monitored by the Commission for possible money laundering arising from the redesign of the naira is rising.

Speaking to correspondents after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa Abuja on Thursday, he however declined to give the exact number of state chief executives involved.

The anti-graft agency had previously revealed that three governors were being watched on the suspicion that may attempt to launder a stash of cash in their possession that they may not be able to lodge in the bank before the deadline by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to return old notes for a redesign.

Bawa commended the apex bank’s initiative to redesign some naira denominations, describing it as a significant process in the country’s fight against financial crimes and other forms of corruption.

He maintained that the huge amount of the country’s currency outside the possession of the CBN makes tracking financial crimes difficult, noting that the naira redesigning is an opportunity for the government to regain control over the flow of cash in the country.

Fielding questions, he said: “On the issue of the governors that we are monitoring, in fact, the numbers have even increased. We are monitoring everything, Nigerians are helping. Well, I don’t want to give you the figures so that you will not go and speculate whether they are in the north or in the south, but it’s important that Nigerians key into it.”

Commending the naira redesign initiative and how significant the amount of cash out of the CBN control is, Bawa said: “Oh, it is, it is very significant. You know that there is an obligation of money laundering law that we have, in which an individual is expected to carry out a transaction that is above 5 million naira, through the financial institution, there is also the threshold in which a corporate entity is expected to carry out transactions that are above 10 million in the financial sector and why is it so?

“It is so because financial institutions are expected to be making currency transaction reports, and suspicious transaction reports to relevant agencies. With that, institutions like us will be able to monitor which funds are legitimate and which ones are not legitimate.

“Here we are now, in which 85% of our currency is out in circulation and people are carrying out transactions above the thresholds as provided for by this provision over and above that we will not be able to monitor, we don’t know what they’re doing.

“These are the transactions that are creating and giving avenues to other forms of crime that we’re seeing in this country; payment of ransom, banditry, and all of that, payment of bribery to political actors, and the arrest.

“So, we are happy with this naira redesign in the sense that, it will give Central Bank an opportunity of going back to square one, by the time they collect all these monies back to their system, then they are going to control the money that they are going to release to the system.

“Then, of course, once the monies are back within the financial institution, it will help to further boost economic activities in the sense that there will be more money for people to borrow and then we on our own part, we’ll have the avenue of monitoring what we are doing with all these huge resources that are out there before that are now within the financial institutions.

“So, it is a good thing for all of us, for the entire country and that is why we are calling on Nigerians to embrace the policy, to thank the President for coming up with this and then of course, to champion the cause of the successful implementation of this naira redesign.”

The EFCC boss urged politicians to go about their campaigns without using illegitimate funds in their campaign finances, saying: “For politicians, the message is very clear. Of course, you know, they should sell themselves, they should talk about issues.

“We want to hear about how they are going to solve the problems, not what the problems are, I think it is very important and I think they are doing that. And then of course we encourage that they shouldn’t use illegitimate funds in their campaign finances and all of that.”

Speaking on the “Eagle Eye,” an app recently introduced by the commission, he said the initiative is to ease the reporting of crime, saying: “The Eagle Eye is an app, it’s a novel idea of the EFCC that we launched for the ease of reporting crimes to us.

“Nigerians can easily download it on their phones, either Android or Apple or whatever, and then they can send in complaints to us through the Eagle Eye, you can even take pictures and send them.

“Let me use this opportunity to remind Nigerians that that Eagle Eye is very important for those that are reporting the holders of these currencies that we know are out there. So that is one.”

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