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The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has appealed to journalists across the country to support the aspirations of the commission in its bid to reduce corruption in the country.
Acting Executive Chairman of the commission, Abdulkarim Chukkol made this appeal while speaking at a one-day workshop on effective reporting of economic and financial crimes.
The workshop was attended by journalists from print, electronics and online media.
It was held at the EFCC Zonal Command Office, Iyaganku in Ibadan, the Oyo state capital.
Chukkol whose speech was delivered by the Acting Zonal commander of EFCC, Ibadan zonal command, Halima Mustapha Rufa’u while speaking, maintained that journalists are the vehicle through which the EFCC reaches the Nigerian public with information about its operations.
Chukkol, while addressing the journalists, explained that the workshop was organised in order to upgrade the skills of the participants to enable them to discharge their duties as financial crime reporters more efficiently.
The EFCC boss while speaking further, urged the journalists to educate family members and friends of politicians and others holding political offices that they run the risk of going jail if they allow their companies or bank accounts to be used to launder proceeds of illegal activities.
He added that under the money laundering act, 2022 1145, family members and close allies of politicians and public office holders are now classified as politically exposed persons.
He maintained that the commission was determined to ensure that anyone who steals from the public treasury are brought to justice.
He insisted that ignorance of the law will not be an excuse.
“The decision to engage you all in a training session is buoyed by the appreciation of the fact that you occupy a strategic place in the fight against corruption. You are the vehicle through which the EFCC reaches the Nigerian public with information about our operations. You also play crucial roles in helping to mobilize the people to embrace the fight against corruption. This makes the media one of the most critical allies of the EFCC.
“I acknowledge the fact that what the EFCC is today is largely due to the support and the critical views of the media. Our partnership has been and is still evolving. We greatly value your critical reviews as it ensured remain faithful to the Nigerian people in the discharge of our mandate and we owe the media a debt of gratitude for the successes we have recorded in the last twenty years. I urge the media to continue to align itself with the progressive aspirations of Nigerians, to see that corruption is reduced to the barest minimum, if completely eliminated.
“The impact of the Commission on the economic life of the nation is widely acknowledged. Through the Commission’s enforcement activities, recoveries running into several billions of Naira have been recorded and the country’s anti-money laundering framework strengthened. A key component of this framework is the reinvigorated Special Control Unit against Money Laundering, SCUML which is driving the fight against money laundering and illicit financial flows among Designated Non- Financial Businesses and Professions, DNFBPs. There is now a more robust regulation of the activities of these entities which are vulnerable to money laundering”.
Larrys Peters Aso who delivered a paper titled “Understanding the new money laundering laws in relation to activities of designated non-financial businesses and professions’ enjoined the journalists to continue in their reportage in order to bring corruption to barest minimum.
Other speakers at the workshop include Mr Dele Oyewale who delivered a paper on “Investigative journalism and Nigeria’s fight against money laundering” and Taibat Sallahdeen who spoke on “New trends in cybercrime: How not to become a victim”.