Nigerian Senator Gives Way Out Of Money Laundering Cases

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Anti-corruption and Financial Crimes, Senator Chukwudi Utazi, Director General, Inter-Governmental Action Against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA) Col. Adama Coulibaly, and Director, Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) Francis Usani said governments in the sub-region should be more committed to curbing such crimes.

Law experts and investigators have identified inefficient institutions, uncommitted leadership, poor financing, among others, as key factors aiding money laundering, terror financing and related crimes in West Africa.

They said West African governments needed to exhibit the political will, strengthen available institutions by properly funding them and ensure conscientious application of extant laws, if the sub-region were to make a headway in the campaign to curb financial crimes.

Utazi, Coulibaly and Usani spoke in Abuja on Tuesday at the opening of a five-day regional capacity building workshop on economic and financial crimes, organised for judges, prosecutors and investigators by GIABA.

Utazi noted that the sub-region remains a low capacity region in the fight against money laundering and terrorists financing as a result of weak governance structure, poor institutional framework, inadequate laws, poorly conceived policies and unstable administration of justice.

He urged stakeholders in the criminal justice sector to double their effort if the sub-continent were to be saved from the adverse effect of money laundering and related crimes.

Utazi, who said the Nigerian legislature was on the verge of enacting more stringent laws in this regard, argued that the Judiciary holds the key to the success of every effort against all forms of criminality in any society.

“Investigation and prosecution must not work at cross-purposes with the administration of justice. And judges must have the independence to evaluate the works on investigators and prosecutors, and make pronouncements in accordance with the law.

“They (judges) should work without any other arm of government breathing down their neck in an intimidating manner or subtly or directly, trying to control the outcome of their evaluations,” Utazi said.

Coulibaly said GIABA’s experience in member states showed that effective implementation of its recommendations and existing anti-money laundering laws is hampered by a lack of strong political commitment to prosecute privileged persons involved in economic and financial crimes.

He identified other hindrances as “obsolete legislation, lack of real capacity to effectively investigate and prosecute economic and financial crimes like corruption.”

Coulibaly further identified other challenges as political interference, rivalry among agencies involved in the fight, low level of cooperation among institutions in member states and inadequate financing.

He said the workshop was part of GIABA’s measure to enhance capacity of judges, prosecutors and investigators in the sub-region.

Usani, who is also GIABA’s national correspondent for Nigeria, said the country was more committed than before, to ensure success of the group’s ideals.

He urged participants to ensure application of the expertise and knowledge acquired in the training.

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