EFCC Says three Governors are under their radar over stashed cash

Chairman of the Economic and Financial Criames Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa has revealed that the agency is currently monitoring three Governors who are allegedly planning to launder stashed billions of naira through table payment of salaries to workers.

Bawa who called for support from Nigerians in an interview with Daily Trust, added that the raid on Bureau De Change operators will be sustained.

The EFCC Chairman during the interview refused to disclose the identity of the three governors. He only said two of them are from the North, while the third Governor is from the southern part of the country.

He said;

“I don’t know how they want to achieve that but we have to stop them from doing that. Well, we are working, they have not paid the salaries in cash yet but it is a very serious thing.

“The law is very clear regarding cash transactions. Anybody that is to consummate any cash transaction as an individual, if it is not through a financial institution must not be above N5million and if it is above that it is criminal for you to engage in such transaction. And for corporate entities it is N10million.

“Yes, I agree the salaries are not up to that but why are you all of a sudden, and all along you have been paying people salaries through their bank accounts and now you want to pay them in cash, what are you trying to do? They will come under a lot of guises, they are trying to do verification of officers, that is what we have gotten.”

Bawa also confirmed that there is a mad rush by some people to dispose off their stashed funds by buying properties.

He said;

“We are aware of that. Even if you dispose of your property and you receive cash, for that cash to be of value to you after January 31, 2023, you have to take it to the bank; so what happened, are you coming to the bank with those millions? That is why we are working with the bankers and if you have this information let us know about it.”

On raids carried out against BDC operators, Bawa said;

“They (BDCs) are very important in the sense that a lot of people that have this naira cash, will want to convert them to USD.