NFIU says Lawan, Gbaja, others not under investigation

The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) says the Senate President, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Chief Justice of Nigeria and members of the National Assembly were not under investigation.

The anti-graft stated this while reacting to a leaked memo requesting the bank details of principal government officials.

The unit expressed displeasure that some people were seeking political advantage from its leaked confidential letter to banks requesting the bank account details of principal government officials.

In a statement by its Chief Media Analyst, Ahmed Dikko, the NFIU noted that the opposition seemed to be speaking through some non-governmental organisations insinuating that the government was using the NFIU, describing this as untrue.

The agency noted that the officer who initiated the request to the banks was unacquainted with the fact that the NFIU already had access to such information through its database.

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“It will be recalled that a new government was inaugurated in May, 2019. The officer who initiated the unauthorized letter was also taking the initiative to update the PEPs list,” said the statement made available to Pulse on Monday, September 16, 2019.

“This list includes politicians and political appointees in all organs of government. The update exercise which is a regular practice in order to protect public funds and other assets is also in accordance with global best practice.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the Senate President, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Chief Justice of the Federation as well as senators, members of the House of Representatives, justices and other members of the judiciary are not under investigation by the NFIU.

“Having been aware that the leaked letter was not subjected to the appropriate level of authorization before transmission, the NFIU has commenced investigation to unravel the persons and the factors that led to the inadvertent circumvention of our internal process in this isolated case with a view to applying appropriate sanctions as deterrence,” it concluded.