The Attorney General of the Federation
and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, said on Wednesday that the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission would soon embark on a massive
prosecution of suspects found to be responsible for the instability of
the naira against some foreign currencies.
The AGF said this while addressing
journalists on the issues affecting the foreign exchange market in the
country, at his office in Abuja.
Malami restated the resolve of the
President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to resist the call for the
devaluation of the naira.
“In the exercise of the powers of my
office and in consonance with the policy thrust of this administration, I
have, therefore, directed the EFCC and other relevant security agencies
to further investigate and confirm the information already available,”
Malami said.
Responding to a question, Malami said
investigations of the suspected foreign exchange suspects had been
completed, adding that that the EFCC would embark on ‘massive
prosecution’ soon.
“We have passed the stage of warning. We
have passed the stage of investigation. We have gone far in terms of
gathering the evidence. We are at the stage of embarking on massive
prosecution,” Malami said.
Though the minister did not give the
exact identities of the suspects, he said they included ‘regulators that
are responsible for giving protection to the naira but have failed in
their responsibilities and ended up protecting businessmen and other
culprits involved in shady forex business’.
He said some of the ongoing sharp
practices causing the instability of the naira included round-tripping
of foreign exchange sourced from the inter-bank market, rendition of
false foreign exchange utilisation data, non-repatriation of proceeds
and use of foreign exchange for ineligible purposes.
He also linked the forex crisis to
‘consumption of foreign exchange transactions with inadequate, expired
and or forged documents; and failure to report foreign exchange end
users who default in the submission of required documents’.
He said the applicable law to prosecute
the suspects included Banks and other Financial Institutions Act 1991
(as amended in 1997, 1998 and 2002); the Money Laundering (Prohibition)
Act 2011 and the Foreign Exchange Monitoring and Miscellaneous
Provisions Act, 1995.
He said the priority of the Buhari
administration included efforts aimed at diversification of the economy
and promotion of ‘greater accountability within the system through the
blocking of all revenue loopholes’ and ‘a robust asset-recovery
process’.
He said, “In the light of the current
economic realities, it clear to all objective and discerning observers
that there is an urgent need to review our foreign market from the
perspective of the degree of compliance with extant laws and regulations
due to certain disturbing developments which increasingly are
confirming the initial suspicion of government that the current state of
the naira is not the result of neutral factors.
“On the contrary, and indeed on a very
sad not, it is apparent that our national currency is being deliberately
undermined by carefully-orchestrated criminal conspiracies and
manipulation by unscrupulous elements hiding under the cloak of
so-called ‘market forces’.”
The minister said while the crash of the
naira against the dollar and other key foreign currencies could be
‘directly traceable to declining crude oil prices arising from a supply
glut in the global oil market’, the nefarious speculative activities had
exerted further pressure on naira exchange.
He said the speculative activities had
‘created a very wide artificial differential between the aforesaid two
rates which are now being exploited by unscrupulous individuals and
institutions’.
He said, “Accordingly, the differential
has given rise to sharp practices and rent- seeking activities by these
entities that run contrary to the various provisions of the laws
governing the conduct of the foreign exchange market and our
money-laundering regime.”
By Ade Adesomoju, Punch Newspaper
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