The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) recently warned currency speculators and Bureau de Change (BDC) operators not to undermine the move by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to redesign and reissue higher denominations of the Naira.
The Director of Operations of the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulkarim Chukkol, said the agency has discovered
that many of the over 6,000 Bureau De Change in the country were unregistered.
He said EFCC operatives raided some BDC offices in Abuja and
Lagos to sanitise the foreign exchange sector.
He also said the commission acted on intelligence on some
operators of BDC.
Also, the EFCC yesterday confirmed the arrest of a suspected
currency speculator, Mustapha Muhammed alias Mustapha Naira.
Chukkol, who spoke on Good Morning Nigeria, a breakfast
programme on the Network Service of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), said
the arrest of BDC operators and currency speculators in the parallel market was
not indiscriminate but a product of intelligence.
He represented the
Executive Chairman of EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa, to discuss on ”Sanitising
Ungoverned Operators in the Forex Sector”.
A statement by the Head of Media and Publicity of EFCC, Mr.
Wilson Uwujaren, quoted the director as saying: “Many of the over 6,000
registered BDC do not belong to the Association of Bureau De Change Operators
of Nigeria and therefore out of the orbit of regulators.
“The CBN guidelines are clear regarding returns by BDCs, but
how many of them do this?”
He said the commission “considers foreign exchange
malpractice as an economic crime against the Nigerian state, He said: “The
commission as far back as 2016 established a full-fledge Section known as
Foreign Exchange Malpractices Section and for over 10 years maintained visible
“presence at all airports in the country to checkmate incidences of bulk cash
movement outside Nigeria which is another aspect of this menace.”
“Through the Commission’s presence at the major gateway into
the country, many arrests of cash smugglers have been made and humungous sums
in foreign currencies recovered.
“Some were arrested with excess of $6million(USD), others
with $2million(USD) and we know that these huge sums were not meant to be used
in buying goods but stolen monies being laundered out of the country.”
“The EFCC not only recovered some of these monies, but
secured their forfeiture to the Federal Government. The culprits were
prosecuted.”
In a separate statement, the EFCC yesterday confirmed the
arrest of an alleged currency speculator.
The statement said: “As part of its ongoing operation to
sanitize the foreign exchange sector and rid it of speculators and all shades
of economic saboteurs, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has
arrested one Mustapha Muhammed alias Mustapaha Naira.
“He was picked up by operatives of the Commission on
Saturday at Wuse Zone 4, the hub of parallel market operations in the Federal
Capital Territory.
“The suspect has made useful statement while the
investigation continues.”