EFCC set to begin prosecution of bankers facilitating financial crimes

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) says it will soon commence prosecuting banks and their top officials for financial fraud.

The EFCC Chairman, Olanipekun Olukoyede, said this on Tuesday at the 17th Annual Banking and Finance Conference, organised by the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) in Abuja.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the conference theme is ‘Accelerated Economic Growth and Development, the State of Play and the Way Forward’.

Mr Olukoyede said the commission had completed its investigations and assembled the necessary documents to substantiate its case.

The EFCC chair said some major and mind-boggling financial frauds were committed through the banking industry.

” We will no longer fold our arms. We need to do something drastic to bring everybody in line and make us do the right thing,” Mr Olukoyede said.

Earlier in March, at the Annual Retreat and General Meeting of the Association of Chief Audit Executives of Banks in Nigeria, Mr Olukoyede said, “About 70 per cent of financial crimes in Nigeria are traceable to the banking sector.”

This scenario is disturbing and unacceptable,” said Mr Olukoyede, who was represented at the event by represented by the commission’s Director, Internal Audit, Idowu Apejoye.

Sanction

On Tuesday, he reiterated the need to enforce the sanction regime against erring bankers.

” In a system where there are no sanctions, that system will not survive,” he said.

The EFCC chairman urged the CIBN to step up its regulatory oversight of its members to adhere to the codes of professionalism.

He said that the commission’s investigations of financial crimes involving members of the profession revealed gross contempt for regulation, which bothered on gross contempt for regulation, which bothered impunity.

” On our part as EFCC, we are committed to working with the institute and financial services sector through robust enforcement of anti-money laws and attacks from cyber-criminals both from within and without.

” It is my hope that you will all look at yourselves in the mirror and leave this place with renewed commitment to professionalism and determination,” he said.

Earlier in March, Mr Olukoyede broadly categorised banking frauds into those perpetrated inside and outside.

“The inside-related fraud comprises outright selling of customers’ deposits, authorising loan facilities, forgery and several other kinds of unhealthy and criminal practices.

“The outsider-related ones include hacking, ATM fraud, and conspiracy, among others. And then, the absurd one is when both collaborate, that is collaboration among the bankers and the outsider.

“That one is the one that is really absurd because when you do that, that means you are selling out the system.”

Worrisome trend of banker fraud, vows with little action

Successive EFCC chairpersons lamented the roles of financial institutions in aiding financial crimes and vowed to take drastic steps against it.

The case of Abdulrasheed Maina, the jailed former chairperson of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT), typifies the ignominious roles of banks and their officials in facilitating the stealing of public funds and financial crimes in general.

The issue topped the agenda of Abdulrasheed Bawa, the former chairman of the EFCC, as he assumed office in 2021.

In March 2021, about a month after then-President Muhammadu Buhari appointed him to office, he announced that bankers and officials of financial institutions would be compelled to declare their assets to check their contributions to facilitating financial crimes.

He set 1 June 2021 for the officials to begin compliance with the directive, which he anchored on an existing but little known Bank Employees, ETC. (Declaration of Assets) Act 1986.

He added that the penalty for violating the Act, as spelt out in section 7(2) of the law, includes imprisonment for 10 years.

“Any employee guilty of an offence under subsection (1) of this section shall, on conviction, be liable to imprisonment for ten years and shall, in addition, forfeit the excess assets or its equivalent in money to the Federal Government,” he added.

In October of that year, an official representing Mr Bawa at a capacity-building workshop for security agencies organised by the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) acknowledged stiff resistance to enforcing the law and attempted to secure the buy-in of more people.

“It is obvious that those who kicked or are still kicking against the directive are ignorant of the unmistakable details of the Bank Employees Declaration of Assets Act.

“Unlike the claims in some quarters, it is not a witch hunt; rather, it is part of measures to sanitise the country’s financial institutions,” he said.

However, the resolve to enforce the law appeared to have waned over time until Mr Bawa was abruptly removed from office by the new administration of President Bola Tinubu.

(NAN)