Why EFCC Has Not Arrested Anyone Over Naira Scarcity – Bawa

Why EFCC Has Not Arrested Anyone Over Naira Scarcity – Bawa

Despite the scarcity of new N200, N500, and N1,000 notes across the country, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) says it is not eager to arrest suspected cash hoarders.

“I think public servants out there or some businessmen with questionable character still have these funds out there,” the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, said during a live appearance on Channels Television’s The 2023 Verdict on Wednesday.

He did, however, emphasize that the law allows anyone in possession of old notes to deposit them with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) at any time in the future.

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“Throughout this exercise, from October 2022 to date, we have not arrested anybody. We have not raised any question regarding who deposited what, where and how because we’re determined not to cause too much panic within the system.

“One of the cardinal objectives of the policy is to ensure that monies are returned to the banking system, and that is why we are holding on; we’re not eager to start that. Facts cannot change for things that are already within the financial institutions,” he said.

According to Bawa, the new currency is easier to track thanks to the serial numbers on the banknotes and the locations where it has been distributed across the country.

He also stated that the anti-graft agency bears an additional responsibility in the eventual recovery of all funds allegedly used for vote-buying.

“We can actually trace and see whether this currency is genuine currency gotten from ATMs across the country, or whether somebody somewhere used them in bulk and gave the politicians the money,” the EFCC boss said.

“One of the problems that we’re having is that the bankers are actually sabotaging the equitable distribution of these new naira notes.

“We are working on all of that and we’re sure that at the end of the day, we’re going to be successful, more than any other time, but this time around, because of this issue of new naira notes that we have across the country in circulation.”

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