Following the announcement of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) that it has redesigned the naira, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has said it has commenced tracing billions of illicit funds linked to politicians.
The anti-graft agency said the fund is being hoarded in different houses by at least three governors, who are now working to take it to the banks before the Jan. 31 deadline given by the CBN.
The central bank governor Godwin Emefiele announced late last month the redesign of N200, N500 and N1,000 notes – a decision sanctioned by President Muhammadu Buhari that is believed will help curtail the amount of money outside the banks.
The redesigned naira notes, which will begin circulation from December 2022, has created chaos and panic in Nigeria’s money market – resulting in the crashing of the naira to more than N800/$1. In addition, it is forcing those hoarding money to device means of spending it before the deadline.
The EFCC Chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa, told Daily Trust in an interview that the governors are planning to launder the stashed cash by using it to pay salaries. The commission has started raiding Bureau De Change operators as part of efforts to mop up the amount of cash outside the banks’ vaults. Bawa said the agency plans to keep the momentum and in addition, keep an eye out for cash deposits above N5 million, which it described as a crime.
“Already, some state governors that have some of this cash stashed in various houses and the rest are now trying to pay salaries in cash in their states.
“I don’t know how they want to achieve that but we have to stop them from doing that. Well, we are working, they have not paid the salaries in cash yet but it is a very serious thing,” he said.
The EFCC Chairman said the governors under its radar are attempting to contravene Section 2 of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act by their plan to use the stashed cash to pay salaries.
A report by Sahara Reporters said the EFCC has been investigating a serving state governor who has withdrawn more than N60 billion in cash since 2015. Though the identities of the governors involved were not revealed, Bawa said in the latest edition of the agency’s in-house magazine called “EFCC Alert”, that Nigerians would soon hear more about the matter.
“Very soon, Nigerians are going to see some of the things that we are doing. I can tell you for free that the new Department of Intelligence that we have created is working wonders. They have come up with a lot of intelligence.
“In one of them, a governor in a North-Central state within the last six years (one individual) has withdrawn over N60 billion in cash.
“We are looking at all of that, and I assure you that at the end of all of our investigations, Nigerians are going to be briefed of what we are doing behind the scene on cybercrime, politically-exposed persons, as well as engaging government agencies to ensure that we have better processes and procedures on how to do government business.
“We are not setting out to be engaging with people on the pages of newspapers or press conferences. We are working hard trying to see what we can do behind the scenes [to eradicate corruption],” Bawa had said.
As we move closer to January 2023, it is becoming clear that corrupt individuals hoarding illicit cash are scrambling to spend it. The CBN said N2.73 trillion out of the N3.23 trillion currency in circulation, is outside the vaults of commercial banks across the country. With the hoarders scheming to outsmart the authorities, the naira redesign may greatly fail to achieve its aim.
