LaunderingChairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, says the agency has uncovered money laundering activities and funding of terrorists by religious groups.
Olukoyede, who made the revelation at a one-day dialogue on “Youth, Religion, and the Fight against Corruption” in Abuja, also said N7 billion fraud proceeds was traced to a religious organisation.
He further said the EFCC had found religious organisations, institutions, sects and bodies culpable of money laundering in the country.
Olukoyede said one of such religious bodies dragged the commission to court to protect its leader after laundered money was traced to its bank account.
The EFCC boss said the religious body got a court injunction restraining the commission from inviting, arresting or prosecuting its leader.
“We will not give up on recovering the stolen funds,” Olukoyede said.
“It is so sad that as I stand before the eminent audience today, that our experience in fighting corruption has to do with the religious leaders and even traditional rulers.
“As I stand before you there is a matter we are handling of over 30 billion fleeced from Nigeria, and we were able to trace N7 billion to a particular religious body.
“As we wrote a letter to the leader, the next thing we saw was a restraining order, stopping us from inviting them, stopping us from recovering the money.”
He, however, said that the EFCC had appealed the judgment.
“Sometime ago, we investigated the issue of money laundering, somewhere in this country.
“There is a particular religious sect that launders money for terrorists, these are the problems we are battling with,” Olukoyede added.
He also revealed that since he assumed office about three months ago, the anti-graft commission has secured 747 convictions, but said over 60 per cent of the convictions were cybercrime cases.
“To our faith leaders, my appeal is that those who lead our society from churches and mosques should develop messages that glorify industry, hard work, probity and contentment over riches, irrespective of how it was made.
“We all must stand up and be counted in the efforts to reset the mentality of our youths that the fast lane to affluence is fraud.
“Aside from our commitment to using faith to tackle corruption in various levels of society, we have also developed a remarkable tool which we intend to deploy to prevent corruption in our Ministries, Department and Agencies,” he said.
According to him, this tool, a Fraud Risk Assessment Project, is meant to assist government agencies to address systemic vulnerabilities at the personal, institutional and environmental levels.
“When fully deployed, it will save the nation billions of Naira in stolen wealth, time and resources spent in investigating grand corruption cases.
“The project is intended to commence, in the first instance, with 20 extremely vulnerable agencies of government.
“We believe that with the support of the government and the cooperation of the leadership of the selected agencies, we will be able to
drastically close the space for brazen graft in the public sector,” he said.
The Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), emphasised the significance of paying more attention to preventive measures in the renewed fight against corruption.
He urged religious leaders, traditional rulers, heads of tertiary institutions and youth groups to take ownership of the reinvigorated anti-corruption crusade under the Tinubu administration.
President, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Archbishop Daniel Okoh, stated that corruption remained the major challenge of the country.
“Corruption remains one of the major challenges that we have in our country, the albatross that hampers development and stifles the potentials of the youths.
“Corruption undermines the principles of justice, fairness and equality, eroding the very fabrics of the society, it is a cancer that eats away the trust and integrity of institutions, hindering progress and development.
“It discourages hard work, dignity of labour, honesty, respect for one another and creates a wicked generation that destroys the future of their nation.
He also urged the Government at all levels to strengthen the Justice system to indict and discipline any established act of corruption to give strong support to the campaign against corruption.
The Sultan of Sokoto and Chairman, Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, His Eminence, Sa’ad Abubakar, promised to support the EFCC in its fight adding that the fight against corruption is a fight for all.
“We want to assure you that we will support you one hundred percent in this fight, because it is a fight for our lives. If we really want Nigeria to be Nigeria we can proudly call our country, we must fight this corruption to the last level.
We want to assure the EFCC chairman, as religious leaders, we will invite you for a close door interaction about what we should do as religious leaders,” he said.
Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan, the Ojaja II stressed the need to make governance less attractive to discourage corruption and corrupt practices in the country.
He called for devolution of powers, explaining that local governments should be empowered and greatly encouraged to bring development closer to the people.
“If we don’t look inward and change the structure, nothing tangible would be achieved. Go and make the local government powerful. It is the root of our heritage and customs, make them powerful,” he said
He called for the review of the constitution to give room for the devolution of power, stressing, that concentration of power in the centre will promote corruption.
“Let us review our Constitution and let us stop deceiving ourselves.
It is few impact our leaders can make, if we know that we will keep talking, talking every year and things will continue to get worse because the population is growing very rapidly,” he said.
Sharpedgenews reports that the one-day event was aimed at addressing the challenges of youth involvement in cybercrimes and how religion could be used for their reorientation.
“Youth, Religion and the Fight Against Corruption,” featured the launch of the Interfaith Preaching and Teaching Manual developed by the Interfaith Anti-Corruption Advisory Committee of the Commission to instigate abhorrence for corruption among adherents of Islam and Christianity.
The EFCC’s Fraud Risk Assessment Prevention and Control Project for Ministries, Departments and Agencies was also inaugurated at the event.