KEHINDE AKINTOLA
The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) is about to move the present administration’s fight against corruption further as it unveiled plans to publish the assets of all politically exposed persons and public officers at all levels.
Our Correspondent gathered the NFIU took the decision owing to the seizure of N10 billion cash suspected to be criminal fund between last Tuesday and Wednesday.
The resolution to publish the assets was said to have been prescribed by the EGMONT Group of Financial Intelligence Units operating in 150 countries.
The unit is now in good stead to act following the lift of the suspension imposed on Nigeria. Part of the conditions for lifting the suspension is its linkage various regulatory agencies including Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to enable it obtains criminal intelligence.
Accordingly, all the crime related agencies are also to transfer statistics
and intelligence information as well as ensure internal compliance.
Hamman-Tukur Moddibo disclosed this during the 2019 budget defence initiated by the House Committee on Financial Crimes, chaired by Kayode Oladele that the asset declaration of politically exposed persons and public officers are currently shrouded in secrecy as well as non-declared owners of various shell companies.
He added that International Community strongly maintained that Nigeria should impose targeted sanctions for those found guilty of any crime to be sanctioned for any crime committed, adding that NFIU is “doing a lot on banking industry which are susceptible to crime, they want to see them punished.”
Hamman-Tukur added that the President had mandated NFIU to develop
Step-by-Step solution to money laundering control targeted analysis in
tandem with the concerns raised by the International regulatory
agencies.
He said the Egmont Group would want the NFIU to work closely with
other agencies of government in fighting terrorism, financial crimes
and other related offences.
“With the lifting of the suspension, it is likely that all assets of all leaders, public officials and political office holders will be displayed. They want to see us work with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC),
Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC).
“They want us to work closely with the Presidency, Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) and the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC). They want to see the assets of all public officials displayed publicly,” he disclosed.
Explaining further, Hamman-Tukur said: “we believe that NEITI and CAC are doing a good job, but it will be good that the beneficiary owner data base will be domiciled with the CCB, and we will subscribe; because CCB has assets declarations of all public officers.”
He said after the suspension was lifted, they faced the task of EU listing, which was targeted at blacklisting Nigeria and stop all her transactions overseas involving European countries. Adding, he informed that they were able to block the blacklisting but the EU
listing subjected Nigeria to enhanced due diligence in all transactions concerning all EU countries on suspicious transactions through their own agencies within their jurisdiction.
The director noted that the “NFIU being a new body and in line with its mandate and to ensure information and data backup and enhance the confidentiality of the information in the NFIU, which has over time been one of the major concerns of the FATF and EGMONT Group of FIU’s.
He explained that despite the fact the government has financial
constraints due to dwindling revenue; the NFIU needs to carry out its
role of monitoring financial institutions for compliance as empowered
by the NFIU Act of 2018.
In furtherance of its mandate to curb terrorism and other social vices across the country, Hamman-Tukur disclosed plans for the deployment of technological devices that could identify criminals and their sponsors as well as accounts across the country, starting with Zamfara, Enugu, Lagos, Plateau states which he described as flash-points of cultism.
According to him, six months from today, we are going to identify sponsors of those crimes, adding that NFIU is set to institute financial and money laundry analysis with a view to analyzing the accounts, locations which will provide early warning signal to the
agency and relevant security agencies.
Giving update on the legislative activities, Kayode Oladele, chairman, House Committee on Financial Crimes assured Nigerians of National Assembly’s resolve to pass all outstanding anti-corruption legislations before the expiration of the 8th Assembly.
“The NFIU has the responsibility, to among others, ensure that Nigeria complies with international standards on matters bothering on money laundering and terrorism financing in addition to the power o receive, analyze and disseminate suspicious transaction reports (STRs). On the 7th of January 2019 the president in accordance with the provision of
section 5(1) of NFIU Act, appointed Mr. Modibbo Hamman-Tukur as the Director of the newly created NFIU.
“IN addition, the House of Representatives on the 17th of July, 2018 passed the Proceed of Crime bill, which seeks to harmonize, consolidate the existing legal frameworks and establish a central agency to manage the proceeds recovered from illegally acquired
properties.
“The bill, which I sponsored with inputs from the Executive and other stakeholders, provides a legal and institutional framework for the confiscation, seizure, recovery and management of assets or proceeds derived from unlawful activities, including instrumentalities used or intended to be used in the commission of unlawful activities.
“Recall that since 2014, the Federal Ministry of Justice had been clamouring for the passage of this bill. This bill is a product of far reaching consultations and collaborations with stakeholders and development partners, all in a bid to ensure that its provisions are
in conformity with global best practices.
“I’m glad to report that I spoke with my Senate counterpart, Sen. Utazi yesterday (Wednesday) and he assured me that the Senate would pass the bill when it resumes plenary next week. With this development, I’m happy to report that the Proceeds of Crime bill will soon be passed into law by the President.
“Perhaps, other crucial bills in the fight against corruption that may be passed by the 8th National Assembly before it winds up are the Whistle Blowers Protection Bill which again, I sponsored in the House of Representatives as well as the Witness Protection bill respectively.
“The process of passing these bills is ongoing and I am of the hope that this shall be done by this 8th Assembly,” Oladele posited.
Details of the 2018 budget performance showed that out of the N1.185 billion approved in 2018, the sum of N385.310 million was for personnel cost, N600 million was for overhead while N200 million was for capital expenditure.
According to the document, the capital release to date stands at N174.946 million out of the budgeted amount of N200.1 million, adding that utilization percentage stands at about 12 percent while the balance stands at N154.936 million.
For 2019, a total of N8.244 billion was proposed, made up of N1.154 billion for overhead cost, N4.124 billion for capital cost while N2.865 billion is for personnel cost.
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