Senate President, Speaker, CJN, Senators, Reps Members, Justices Not Under Investigation – NFIU

The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) on Monday said that for the avoidance of doubt, the President of the Senate, Ahmed Lawan, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, the Chief Justice of the Federation, Senators, members of the House of Representatives, Justices and other members of the Judiciary are not under investigation.

The Unit explained that its officer that initiated request to the Banks asking for account details of some political office holders was obviously unacquainted with the fact that the Unit already had access to such information through its data base.

The NFIU however declared that it has the major responsibility, in accordance with global standards, to maintain and regularly update the list of Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs). 

These were contained in a statement by Chief Media Analyst of the NFIU, Ahmed Dikko, in which he further said that having been aware that the leaked letter was not subjected to the appropriate level of authorization before transmission, it has commenced investigation to unravel the persons and the factors that led to the inadvertent circumvention of its internal process in this isolated case with a view to applying appropriate sanctions as deterrence.

Dikko also said; “The NFIU has found it necessary to issue this second press release on the leaked letter asking for information on certain categories of public officers. This is to reaffirm the earlier press release made on Friday, September 13, 2019. 

“We have noticed that while some individuals who seem to be favourable to Government are creating the wrong impression that the opposition is using the NFIU, those in the Opposition seem to be speaking through some Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and insinuating that Government is using the NFIU to its political advantage.

“Both positions are not only untrue but patently unimaginable. It will be recalled that a new government was inaugurated in May 2019. The officer who initiated the unauthorized letter was also taking the initiative to update the PEPs list.

“This list includes politicians and political appointees in all organs of government. The update exercise which is a regular practice in order to protect public funds and other assets is also in accordance with global best practice.

“We appeal to members of the public that it is needless to make political capital out of this as the entire country is just a co-signatory with other 164 members of the FIU processes,” Dikko said.