The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has commenced investigations on some high profile politicians.in Nigeria
Daily Nigerian reported that the commission’s chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa, disclosed this in Lagos on Tuesday at a workshop on financial crimes reportage organised for some select journalists.
Abdulrasheed Bawa said some high-profile politicians are currently on their watch list ahead of the 2023 elections.
He further revealed that the commission has begun tracking and taking note of some high-profile entities in Nigeria in the build-up to the 2023 elections.
The list includes top politicians, legal practitioners, estate operators, precious stone dealers, accountants, construction companies, and many others.
“Journalists must be inclined with money laundering law.”
Bawa also brought to the notice of the participating journalists that a portion of the law is called the “Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.”
He said journalists should abreas with these laws so that they will not be found guilty of violating them while reporting news stories on money laundering.
“I am sure that most of us are aware of the legislative reforms that recently birthed the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.
“There are certain provisions of this new law that I believe will affect you directly or indirectly. One is secrecy of financial transactions.
“The new law criminalises the operation of numbered accounts and also mandates financial institutions to ascertain the beneficial owners of accounts before opening such accounts.”
Some of the participating journalists were selected from the judicial beat, crime beat, and financial beat.
Some of the papers presented at the workshop include challenges of prosecuting economic and financial crimes in Nigeria, best practices in financial crimes reporting and peculiarities, trends, typologies, and the challenges of cybercrime enforcement in Nigeria
