The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) said it did not write to banks requesting National Assembly and Judiciary leaders ‘ bank accounts
A report was published on Friday, said to be from the NFIU, indicating a petition to banks for information on legislature and judiciary accounts.
“Kindly provide the NFIU with a schedule (account names and account numbers) of the National Assembly, members of National Assembly and principal officers of National Assembly Service Commission, as well as all accounts of National Judicial Service Commission and their principal officers, including judges and other relevant politically exposed persons.
“Kindly note that your response is expected on or before September 13, 2019,” the letter reads.
In a letter dated September 10 and signed by the Associate Director of Analysis and Compliance, Fehintola Salisu, the NFIU asked all banks to comply with the directive until September 13. The letter was sent to all banks ‘ chief compliance officers.
The NFIU, however, said that it did not make such a request from the banks. However, it did not categorically declare the document to be false.
Chief Media Analysts of the Agency, Ahmed Dikko, stated in a statement that the NFIU does not need to write to banks in order to obtain details of the accounts.
Mr Dikko said that the NFIU already has access to the account details of all the officers of the National Assembly and the Judiciary.
“The attention of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), has been drawn to media reports stating that the unit has requested banks to furnish it with the account details of principal officers of the National Assembly and the Judiciary. Such reports are not true.
“In line with its powers as provided in the NFIU Act 2018, the Unit already has access to details of all bank accounts in the country and does not therefore, need to write to commercial banks asking for the same information.
“As a matter of fact, relevant reporting entities such as investigative and other Law Enforcement Agencies always rely on the NFIU for information on bank details of individuals and body corporate under investigation as they go about carrying out their functions. Such is a mandatory reporting process,” the statement read in part.
Mr Dikko added that the Agency does not make any general requests to all banks as well. He urged the media and the general public to ignore the reports.