Following the clamp down on looters and the recovery of corrupt
proceeds by the Magu led EFCC, some politicians are in desperate mood to cover
up their loots. The former past governor of Akwa ibom state and the current
minority leader of the Senate, Mr Godswill Akpabio has withdrawn about
17billion naira from his zenith, GTB and stanbic IBTC bank accounts on Tuesday
21st june and Wednesday 22nd june respectively.
Inside
source from one of the banks spoke with a DNB correspondent on condition that
his identity will be protected. “I guess the man is pretty scared right now;
they are scared that what happened to fayose (Ekiti Governor) might befall
them; they are just withdrawing their money. Akpabio just withdrew over
10billion from our bank today”, the inside source said.
Nigeria’s politicians have turned to microfinance banks to
hide their loots. With this, it will be impossible for authorities to trace or
recover their ill gotten wealth. For instance, a former chairman of the People’s
Democratic Party in Ogun state, Mr Bayo Dayo is said to have withdrawn huge
sums of money from his personal and company’s bank accounts and deposited same
with a microfinance bank in Ogun state; Accion MFBank with head office in Lagos
state. Also, a former governor in one of the states in the southeast and also a
promoter of a micro finance bank was in April alleged to have mopped up his
cash lodged in various commercial banks and into a secret account opened in his
Micro finance bank.
Since the introduction of BVN and the linking of accounts,
it is virtually impossible to cover loots lodged in commercial bank accounts.
Recently, it was reported by the EFCC that corrupt politicians now hide their
loots/cash in uncompleted buildings and safe houses all over Nigeria. I urge
the EFCC and the relevant authorities saddled with the responsibility of
recovering our stolen wealth to beam their searchlights on micro finance banks
and credits homes so as to recover more loots.
Nigeria at current under this administration is
fighting corruption and according to president, “No One will be spared”. Most
countries of the world have made it tough for politicians from Nigeria to open
and run bank accounts in their countries. Dubai, not quite long adopted this
policy; it’s a way of checking mating corrupt politicians and to make sure that
illegal money or stolen money does not find its way into their banks.
