The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) has declared that it acted within the law on guidelines on cash withdrawals from all government accounts.
Indeed, NFIU has also expressed readiness to partner with the 6-man committee set up by the Nigerian Governors Forum with the view to enlighten the forum.
The NFIU was reacting to a statement by the Nigerian Governors Forum regarding the guidelines on cash withdrawals from all government accounts.
It would be recalled that the NGF in a communique at the end of its first meeting in 2023 held on Thursday claimed that the recent NFIU Advisory and Guidelines on cash transactions were simply outside the NFIU’s legal remit and mandate.
Consequently, the governors set up a 6-member Committee to be chaired by the Governor of Anambra State, Professor Charles Soludo and the Governors of Akwa Ibom, Ogun, Borno, Plateau and Jigawa as members, to engage the CBN in addressing anomalies in the country’s monetary management and financial system.
But in a statement at the weekend by the Director, Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), Modibbo Hamman Tukur, and signed by Ahmed DikkoChief Media Analyst said the NFIU acted within its functions and the law, stressing that it issued the guidelines to control the barrage of investigations that they saw coming.
The statement reads in full:
“First of all we are ready to partner with the 6 man committee they set up. We will enlighten them.
“Secondly we acted within our functions and the law. We issued the Guidelines to control the barrage of investigations that we saw coming. Our Guidelines were meant to help the Governors not to fight them or any public servant.”We reached a stage that if we allow the present scenario to continue, all public institutions will drift into STRUCTURED CASH WITHDRAWALS of certain amounts of money which by law, standards and best practices MUST be investigated continuously which is neither desirable nor reasonable. We feel communities must move on by accommodating changes and adjusting to new developments.
“Last time we issued the Local government Guidelines we were taken to court but we won the case.
“But more importantly we need to understand that in recent past United States FIU and United Kingdom FIU penalized Nigerian Banks with fines of millions of U.S Dollars due to non compliance. Internally, non compliance with sections cited in the recent Guidelines comes with heavy penalties on financial institutions. We did, on gentlemanly pretext, avoid until this moment putting a fine to financial institutions expecting, gradual learning and adjustments.
“But to eternally guarantee this kind gesture is to automatically keep abusing our laws.
“We want every stake holder to appreciate that we cooperated for too far and long. We held deep breath while defending these deficiencies Internationally, just to continue to remain in the International pay ponits and competing with others.
“Finally, we also clearly stated in the precceding advisory, that the entire financial system suffered excess liquidity and liquidity ratio infringements which put hedging pressure of demand for foreign currency and gradually destroying the value of the Naira and above all creating wide room for money laundering and terrorism affecting significantly the rural populace on top of general inflation in the open market place.
“We are in support of working together to stop these challenges and in most progressive manner.”
