FG refutes report that ISWAP laundered N18 billion through Nigeria

The Federal Government has refuted parts of a report by the Inter-governmental Action Group on Money Laundering in West Africa.

The group was established by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to help prevent and control money laundering and terrorist financing in the region.

The report revealed that about N18 billion from the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) flowed through the country’s financial system to reach terror groups.

But the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) disputed the report, describing it as untrue.

NFIU said the story is “totally outdated and was based on a 2019 country evaluation report which is literally stale and irrelevant today.”

“It is to the knowledge of the international community, our populace and the formal media organisations that several arrests were made through the on going Operation Service Wide approved by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA),” NFIU’s chief media analyst Ahmed Dikko said in a statement. “The exercise is continuing and far from over.”

“In addition all funding of violence from all sections of the country are being evidently analysed and reported to all relevant authorities according to law.

“It’s true that recently Nigeria fell a victim of illicit financial flows but overt and far reaching efforts are being executed by government to stem the bad practice.”

The ECOWAS body released its report to justify putting Nigeria’s Financial System under enhanced review process alongside other countries in the Sahel.

“We had formally faulted the report to the ECOWAS body while agreeing to partner with them to carry out further review processes to jointly attain global best practices on all counter measures against local and cross border violent crimes disturbing the entire West Africa presently,” Dikko said.

“All our neighbours have proofs of our exchange of terrorist financial intelligence with them real time.”

(The Guardian)