The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said on Tuesday that it has frozen about 300 suspected illegal forex accounts trading on a peer-to-peer platform.
Ola Olukoyede, EFCC Chairman, who announced this at an interactive session with journalists in Abuja revealed that the accounts were suspended yesterday (Monday) following a court order.
Termed the “P to P” (peer-to-peer) financial trading scheme, this illicit operation has thrived beyond the purview of official banking channels, posing a severe threat to the stability of the naira.
Olukayode further disclosed that over $15bn passed through one of the forex platforms just in the last one year, and outside of financial regulations.
According to him, the EFCC took the action to safeguard the foreign exchange market and protect the economy, and that recent efforts have helped strengthen the weak naira.
“Over 300 accounts, in illicit forex trading that would have led to another crash in the next one week if we hadn’t moved in quickly,” Olukoyede said.
“We got an order to freeze those accounts. Somebody would come and asked us ‘what is your business with forex transactions? Some people are happy; they take pleasure in seeing this country boiling and I’ve come to realise that in the course of this work, some people want to see things go bad! From bad to worse.”
Says Yahaya Bello used $720, 000 state Money to pay child’s school fees
At the press meeting Olukoyede also promised to ensure that Yahaya Bello, the embattled former Kogi State Governor is prosecuted and vowed resign his position if this does not happen.
He also committed to ensuring that all those who obstructed his arrest also face the law, no matter the attack and campaign against the EFCC.
Bello who evaded arrest by the anti-graft agency faces arraignment on a 19-count bordering on alleged money laundering, breach of trust and misappropriation of funds to the tune of N80.2 billion.
The EFCC chair noted that he was accorded due respect as a former governor when he was being invited by the agency to clear allegations against him, which he turned down.
According to him, there are clear evidence in court that the former governor moved as much as $720,000 out of Kogi State government coffers to pay his child’s school fees priori to his exit from government.
Narrating the incident, Olukoyede insisted that the EFCC has adequately obeyed the law in trying to bring to answer to the allegations. He cited the judgment by Isah Jamil Abdullahi, who granted to EFCC the powers to bring Bello to Court for arraignment.
He said: “..The particulars of offence are there (before the court). Go and check it, he moved money directly from government to Bureau de Change. He used it to pay the child’s school fees in advance; dollars.
“He moved $720, 000, in advance, in anticipation that he was going to leave government house, in a poor state like Kogi and you want me to close my eyes to that, under the guise that I’m being used. Used by who? At this stage of my life? By who, for crying out loud?
