Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Magu, has accused workers in Nigerian banks as fraudsters aiding dubious politicians to perpetrate evils against the country.
Magu, who spoke during a meeting with compliance officers of different banks in Port Harcourt on Friday, lamented that the fraudsters were aiding politically exposed and other persons to commit various financial crimes.
According to him, some politicians use fraudsters working in banks to launder public funds.
The EFCC boss said apart from helping corrupt politicians to perpetrate financial crimes, they also commit cyber crime.
According to Magu, MoneyGram and Western Union remain a veritable platform used by internet fraudsters to dispossess innocent people of their money.
He said: “The banks also help the politically exposed persons to steal and launder public funds. You will also agree with me that the banks give lifelines to internet fraudsters; the one we call Yahoo boys.
“They (banks) provide market for them through MoneyGram and Western Union that are readily available. So, this is the reason we say we must come here. We have to talk. Unfortunately, we have fraudsters working in the banks; working right inside the banks.
“They throw confidentiality to the wind and subject people’s accounts to a lot of intimidation and extortion. We want to put in our machinery to deal with such fraudulent activities of the bankers and some law enforcement agencies.
“There are bad eggs among us, even in the EFCC, there seems to be readily available partnership with some fraudulent elements within the bank to perpetrate certain fraudulent activities and money laundering. I think this is basically the reason we called this meeting.
“Journalists are supposed to be corruption fighters and hunters just like the compliance officers; they are also corruption fighters and we must all work together to make the fight against corruption in Nigeria work.”
Magu added, “Money is being laundered and money is being used to fund terrorism in the country. There are more terrorist activities in this country. So, it is a good business for them.”
He said the EFCC secured 194 convictions in the last three months, adding that some of the cases were not filed this year.
Magu said, “The fight against corruption is not for us; it is for our future generation. Every Nigerian has a duty to fight corruption. God created us to fight corruption. God did not create you to cause evil. We must insist the right thing is done always.”
He said the commission would go after governors having corruption cases, but were covered by immunity.
“We will go after them; we will not let anybody go,” Magu said.