The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) has hailed the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), saying action taken by the intelligence unit will help curb unending corrupt activities at states and local governments.
The NFIU had in a circular, pegged local government councils’ daily withdrawal from banks at N500,000 and threatened to sanction any bank that released more than that from local government funds.
The TUC, in a statement by Bobboi Bala Kaigama and Musa-Lawal Ozidi, President and Secretary General respectively, urged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and others to provide the necessary support.
The union noted that the biggest challenges confronting the country are leadership and its bane, corruption, stressing that public officials deliberately violated guidelines that made a system decent.
Recently, the agency said no cash withdrawal exceeding N500,000 daily should be made from any local government account with effect from June 1, 2019, noting that any other transaction must be done through valid cheques or electronic funds transfer.
The NFIU in an emailed statement by its acting Chief Media Analyst, Ahmed Dikko, directed all financial institutions, relevant stakeholders, public servants and the public to ensure full compliance with the provisions of the guidelines, which had been submitted to financial institutions and relevant enforcement agencies.
It stated that the directive was sequel to findings, which indicated that cash withdrawals and transactions of the state and joint local government accounts posed the “biggest corruption, money laundering and security threats at the grassroots levels and to the entire financial system and the country as a whole”.
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