Experts Advocate Tougher Legislation to Stop Money Laundering, Terror Financing
Chairman Senate Committee on anti-corruption and financial crimes, Senator Chukwudi Utazi, Director General, Inter-Governmental Action Against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA), Colonel Adama Coulibaly and Director, Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), Francis Usani have said that Nigeria and other West African Countries required tougher laws to stop money laundering and terror financing in the sub-region.
They spoke in Abuja at a five-day regional capacity building worksop on economic and financial crimes, organised for judges, prosecutors and investigators by GIABA.
Utazi said the Nigerian legislature was about to pass more stringent laws in this regard that would make it difficult to launder money in the country.
He said that West Africa remained a low capacity region in the fight against money laundering and terrorists financing as a result of weak governance structure, poor institutional framework, inadequate laws, poorly conceived policies and unstable administration of justice.
He urged all stakeholders in the criminal justice sector to double their effort for the country to curb money laundering and related crimes.
According to him, the Judiciary holds the key to the success of every effort against all forms of criminality in any society.
"Investigation and prosecution must not work at cross-purposes with the administration of justice. And judges must have the independence to evaluate the works on investigators and prosecutors, and make pronouncements in accordance with the law.
"They (judges) should work without any other arm of government breathing down their neck in an intimidating manner or subtly or directly, trying to control the outcome of their evaluations," Utazi said.
Coulibaly said GIABA's experience in member states revealed that effective implementation of its recommendations and existing anti-money laundering laws was made difficult by lack of strong political commitment to prosecute privileged persons involved in economic and financial crimes.
He identified other hindrances to include "obsolete legislation, lack of real capacity to effectively investigate and prosecute economic and financial crimes like corruption."
Coulibaly further identified other challenges to include political interference, rivalry among agencies involved in the fight, low level of cooperation among institutions in member states and inadequate financing.
Usani, who is also GIABA's National Correspondent for Nigeria, said Nigeria was now more committed than before, to ensure the success of the group's ideals.