The Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC Ola Olukoyede has engaged lawyers under the umbrella of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in relation to compliance with Anti-Money Laundering/Combating Financing of Terrorism, (AML/CFT) regulations.
The event tagged: “NBA AML Guidelines: A Practical Approach for Legal Practitioners” was organized by the Special Control Unit against Money Laundering, SCUML, a department in the EFCCin collaboration with the NBA as part of efforts to enlighten legal practitioners on the importance of compliance with AML/CFT regime.
In his goodwill message, delivered by the Director of SCUML, Mr. Daniel Isei, the Chairman expressed confidence in the cooperation of lawyers with SCUML in the implementation of Nigeria’s AML/CFT regime and promised to spare no effort in ensuring that the relationship was enhanced in the overall interest of the country.
Olukoyede expressed happiness that the NBA President, Yakubu Chonoko Maikyau, SAN has already ensured the incorporation of some critical elements of the AML/CFT into the NBA guidelines, adding that the collaboration was necessary as the evaluation of Nigeria by the Financial Action Task Force, FATF, was bleak and called for much work to be done in addressing the identified gaps.
“This collaboration couldn’t have come at a better time. You are all aware that we are on a Grey List, so there are certain actions that are expected of us as a country to take and show forth to the world that we are going in the right direction. So this event is one of those activities that will show that there is strong collaboration between competent authorities of government and self-regulating bodies to address the issue of money laundering and terrorist financing,” he said.
Maikyau, in his address, appreciated the EFCC Chairman for the collaboration and stated that lawyers needed to collaborate with the EFCC to get more enlightenment on their services to their clients on AML/CFT regulations and charged lawyers to take the lead in the anti-corruption fight as professionals with the best knowledge of the law.
Maikyau further used the occasion to announce the establishment of an NBA/AML Desk which he said would be an interface between the NBA and law enforcement agencies on account of AML/CFT regulations.
Assistant Commander of the EFCC, ACE II Ngunan Kakwagh and Chief Superintendent of the EFCC, CSE Temitope Erinomo gave lectures on “Overview of AML/CFT Global Requirements for Legal Practitioners’ and “Guidelines for Conducting Market Entry Controls and KYCs” respectively. Panelists, comprising Professor Ernest Ojukwu, SAN and Babajide Ogundipe who contributed in the drafting of the AML guidelines answered questions from participants.
