EFCC arrests smugglers with $2m, $6m at Nigerian airports

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has revealed that it recovered large foreign currencies from Nigerians at airports.

The Commission’s Director of Operations, Abdulkarim Chukkol made this known while speaking on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA).

Mr Chukkol said money laundering was the reason some Bureau De Change (BDC) operators were recently arrested in Lagos and Abuja.

He said that the arrests were part of efforts of the anti-graft agency to sanitise the foreign exchange sector.

The official assured that the commission would continue with its efforts to clean up the foreign exchange sub-sector.

Mr Chukkol said the raid of currency speculators in the parallel market was not indiscriminate but a product of intelligence.

The director stressed that forex manipulation was a major economic crime against the Nigerian state.

The EFCC said it had been deploying agents to airports for over a decade to stop bulk cash movement out of the country.

“Many arrests of cash smugglers have been made and humongous sums in foreign currencies recovered.

“Some were arrested with an excess of $6 million, others with $2 million.

“We know these huge sums were not meant to be used in buying goods but stolen monies being laundered.”

Mr Chukkol confirmed that the EFCC secured the forfeiture of the monies to the federal government and prosecuted the culprits.

He emphasized the need for active inter-agency and stakeholder collaboration, pointing out that many of the over 6,000 registered BDCs do not belong to the Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria and therefore out of the orbit of regulators.

“The CBN guidelines are clear regarding returns by BDCs, but how many of them do this,” he asked.

Other discussants in the programme include the Director of the Monitoring Policy Department of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN Dr Hassan Mahmud, President, of the Association of Bureau De Change of Change Operators of Nigeria, Dr Aminu Gwadebe, a finance and investment analyst, Niyi Akinsuji and a commentator on financial issues and Managing Director of Timeline Consult, Shuabu Idris in their respective contributions identified the issue of Nigeria being an import driven economy, lack of adequate penalty, shortage of trained manpower, and identification of what truly constitutes ‘black market’ beyond the institutional banking system as some of the problems bedevilling the fight against foreign exchange malpractice in Nigeria.

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