15th November, 2022
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has arrested one Mustapha Muhammed alias Muaspaha Naira.
A statement issued by the commission’s spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren on Tuesday said the arrest was part of its ongoing operation to sanitise the foreign exchange sector and rid it of speculators and all shades of economic saboteurs.
Uwujaren stated that the suspect was picked up by operatives of the Commission on Saturday, November 12, 2022 at Wuse Zone 4, the hub of parallel market operations in the Federal Capital Territory.
“The suspect has made useful statement while the investigation continues,” he said.
Meanwhile, the EFCC said on Tuesday that recent arrest of some Bureau De Change operators across the country especially in Lagos and Abuja was incidental to the Commission’s overall efforts in sanitizing the foreign exchange sector.
The Commission’s Director of Operations, Abdulkarim Chukkol stated this on Monday, November 14, 2022, while fielding questions on Good Morning Nigeria, a breakfast programme on the Network Service of the Nigeria Television Authority, NTA.
Chukkol who represented the Executive Chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa, was among eminent personalities invited to discuss the topic ‘’Sanitizing Ungoverned Operators in the Forex Sector”.
According to him, EFCC’s arrest of BDC operators and currency speculators in the parallel market was not indiscriminate but a product of intelligence.
“At EFCC, we work with intelligence and with other stakeholders; and when we talk of illegal forex operators you cannot just invite people on the street even though sometimes you could, but generally you do not have a choice but to make arrest”.
He stressed that the Commission considers foreign exchange malpractice as an economic crime against the Nigerian state, adding that the Commission as far back as 2016 established a full-fledge Section known as Foreign Exchange Malpractices Section and for over ten years maintained visible “presence at all airports in the country to checkmate incidences of bulk cash movement outside Nigeria which is another aspect of this menace.”