The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has said it will begin to investigate real estate acquisition.
The EFCC said the commission is zeroing on
those hiding under real estate to perpetrate money laundering and other
financial crimes.
Speaking during a training session for
journalists on effective reporting of the economic and financial crimes in
Benin, Edo State, EFCC lawyer, Chris Mishela, said many estates springing up in
Abuja, Lagos, and other parts of the country were believed to be proceed of
fraud and money laundering.
He said, “In Abuja, you see so many estates
coming all over and we believe the source of this fund are unlawful funds. The
funds are illegally gotten either from government or from international crime
that is used to launder through estate business.
“Real estate is one of the designated and
non-designated professions that is also under our obligation under the
establishment to do a full disclosure.
“So EFCC is actually working to look into
that dimension and the new money laundering Act has provided an opening for the
government to look into the aspect of real estate as we saw under the Act.
“It is not an investigation that is going on,
rather we have identified specifically that these are proceeds of crime.”
He explained that the training was to keep
journalists abreast of the framework of new anti-money laundering Act 2022 and
the role they were expected to play.
He added that the need to make the public aware
of the expanded scope of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act
2022 as against the repealed Money Laundering Prohibition Act 2011 necessitated
the workshop.
The Head, Cyber Crimes Unit in EFCC, Benin,
Mrs Oluwakemi Olawoyin, in her presentation on risks and benefits associated
with digital payment system, charged the public not to open any link which they
didn’t initiate while on the Internet.
While highlighting tactics for safe
transactions on the various e-business platforms, she advised the public to
beware of unsecured sites.
On his part, Assistant Commander, Public
Affairs Unit of EFCC, Mr Dele Oyewale, charged journalists on investigative
reporting to provide the commission a lead for fraud investigation.
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