The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission said it is on the trail of three governors who have stashed cash and are about to use it to pay their workers.
According to EFCC chairman Abdulrasheed Bawa who was speaking to the Daily Trust, the governors intend to launder the cash in view of the pending introduction of new naira notes by the Central Bank of Nigeria. He did not mention the governors involved.
“Let me tell you something, the Intel that I had yesterday and I would want you to take this thing very seriously. Already, some state governors that have some of this cash stashed in various houses and the rest are now trying to pay salaries in cash in their state,” he said.
He added that “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”, saying the move is against section 2 of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act.
“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,” he said.
He added that the EFCC will continue the raid on Bureau ‘de Change
“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 or other foreign currencies, that is why they are very important.
“And based on the known gullibility of these people (BDCs), they are willing to accept this cash from the owners of these monies and they are willing to depart with the foreign
