Ibrahim Magu has been the acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) since 09th November 2015. He was appointed by the president – Muhammadu Buhari after the president relieved the former chairman Ibrahim Lamorde of duty.
On January 31st 2019, Magu gave a charge to compliance officers during the general meeting of the Association of Chief Compliance Officers of Banks in Nigeria, ACCOBIN which held in Lagos.
He said many politicians who had stolen the nation’s commonwealth, had begun to repatriate the stolen funds to the country for the purpose of influencing the elections through vote buying and compromise of election officers.
Magu charged members of the group to join hands with the commission to ensure that the election was not compromised because the impact could be devastating and grievous.
Accordingly, he emphasized banks’ obligation to file suspicious transaction reports, currency transaction reports and foreign transaction reports to fight illicit financial flow of funds.
In discussing the roles of financial institutions as an intermediary for law enforcement, He said “We are all under a civic duty to comply with our various responsibilities and ensure that we do the needful to obey the laws and regulations governing the elections.”
On the issue of political inducement, he mentioned that this has now taken other forms and tagged different names such as “stomach Infrastructure”, “empowerment schemes”, “non interest yielding loans” and “outright cash handouts”, among others.
Magu emphasized to members of the group that they are all stakeholders in the fight against corruption, and that each officer’s obligations are not different from the usual filing of suspicious transactions reports to the relevant authorities, and the prompt filing of currency transaction reports as well as foreign transaction reports.
He quoted “We have also observed the upsurge of illicit financial flows into the country through the borders and it is disheartening to see the role financial institutions play in facilitating the flows of these funds into the country. “It is obvious now that financial institutions serve as intermediaries between law enforcement agencies and the criminals. “At a simple push of the button, so much is moved to any jurisdiction of their choice.”
As in every other part of the world, Neither Nigeria nor any other country could combat the flow of illicit funds without the cooperation of financial institutions, adding that “in most cases, it is the financial institutions that provide the means, logistics and strategy for the criminals to thread on.”
He said investigations revealed that foreign properties bought with proceeds of crime were sold, and the proceeds transferred to Nigeria through international banks as legitimate funds that could be used to finance several activities including elections. He said: “Goods bought with proceeds of crime abroad are sent to Nigeria to support empowerment programs during election periods.
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