Bukola Ojeme
30 November 2008
Internal cohesion within the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is at its lowest ebb, following allegations of impropriety leveled against its former Chairman, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, by the incumbent, Mrs. Farida Waziri.
The Commission had, allegedly, last week, leaked out information to the press, claiming that Ribadu has houses in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Leeds and Chelsea in the United Kindgom, among other charges. The former EFCC boss promptly denied the allegations.
Findings at the weekend revealed that most of the founding staff of the Commission are divided over the development, with two officials of the rank of assistant directors contemplating resignation in protest against what they alleged as the deliberate attempt to drag Ribadu's name and indirectly the image of the EFCC in the mud.
But the Commission's Head of Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Babafemi, in a swift reaction, insisted that no official of the rank of director was contemplating leaving the EFCC in protest, describing the resignation claim as "utter falsehood."
However, impeccable sources within the anti-graft body confided that, already, the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), under the EFCC, had been suspended from the secured website of the world anti-money laundering watch dog, the Egmont Group, as a result of the dramatic resignation of the director of the NFIU, Mr. Okauru, and the allegations against Ribadu.
The suspension from the Egmont Group to which financial intelligence units across 108 countries subscribe, as learnt, arose because the world anti-money laundering watch dog said it had lost confidence in the ability of the EFCC to manage sensitive information regarding money laundering, owing to the question mark on the activities of the Commission under Ribadu.
An assistant director at the EFCC headquarters, as gathered, is among the two highly placed officials that have made up their minds to leave by year end, in protest against what they described as shabby treatment of Ribadu and the international odium the development has attracted to the EFCC.
According to Sunday Vanguard source, "The allegations that Ribadu owned houses abroad have put a question mark on the integrity of the Commission, particularly where materials facts regarding this weighty allegations have not been fully investigated.
"As I speak to you, the Egmont Group has suspended the EFCC from accessing its secured website, because of the slur on the competence of the Commission, due to the untidy circumstances under which Mr, Okauru, the director of the NFIU, resigned and the allegations of impropriety leveled against Ribadu. Of course the reason is that it can no longer trust the Nigerian FIU to judiciously use the information to bring Nigerian money laundering offenders to justice."
Most importantly, the source went on, "it means that all of us are tainted, so most of us founding staffers are being made to look like we collaborated in deceiving Nigerians and the international community on the war against economic crimes under Ribadu's tenure.
"For us who know the truth, the circumstances under which we operate now do not allow you to talk, particularly where some founding staffers are treated like pariah and of course the option of quitting becomes the most attractive option."
It was gathered that, even though the Commission insisted it had not accepted the resignation of Okauru, it moved quickly to assuage the Egmont Group by appointing a substantive director, in a letter dated November 18, and signed by Waziri, to replace him.
One of the effects of EFCC's continued suspension from the secured web site of the Egmont Group is that, until it is re-admitted, the anti-graft body cannot access information on the activities of money launderers.
The suspension of EFCC from the Egmont secured web site, further findings revealed, could lead to the reversal of the credit rating of the nation's financial institutions.
Explaining why the Commission had refused to acknowledge Okauru's resignation, Babafemi insisted in a telephone interview that "the Commission cannot accept his resignation because the matter for which he was placed on indefinite suspension is still being investigated."
Before his dramatic resignation from the EFCC, the former NFIU boss had been queried via a letter dated October 10, 2008, and signed by the EFCC chairman. The letter was titled," Failure To Flag and Report Movement of Funds By A State Government (name withheld) Through Bank (name withheld)."
According to the letter obtained by Sunday Vanguard, "In the course of investigations into the activities of the state government, it came to light that massive state government funds were moved through a bank.
"The bank claims to have filed reports of the movement of these funds with the NFIU and it is surprising that the NFIU did not flag or alert the Operations Department about these massive movement of funds."
Waziri, in the query, informed Okauru further: "Consequently, I will require an explanation on why the NFIU neglected to place an alert on the above fund, moreso as this constitutes the primary function of the NFIU".
She directed Okauru to, "kindly therefore explain within seven days of the date of this memo why appropriate sanction should not be meted out to you.
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