Members of the Public Accounts
Committees in the 7th Senate and House of Representatives, statutorily
responsible for ensuring probity and accountability in the nation’s
financial system,
compromised the Money Laundering Act during their
tenure, documents in the possession of PREMIUM TIMES have shown.
Members of the committee as well as their
representatives, repeatedly withdrew sums totalling about N226m, in
violation of the money laundering law.
Part 1, Subsection 1 of the Money
Laundering Act 2011 provides that “No person or body corporate shall,
except in a transaction through a financial institution, make or accept
cash payment of a sum exceeding- (a) N5,000,000.00 or its equivalent, in
the case of an individual; or (b)N10,000,000.00 or its equivalent in
the case of a body corporate.”
It also said, “Any Financial Institution
or Designated-Financial Institution that fails to comply with the above
provision by making the appropriate compliance report to the regulatory
authorities commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine of
not less than N250,000:00 (Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira) for an
individual and not more than N1,000,000 (One Million Naira) for a body
corporate, for each day that the contravention continues unabated.”
The two committees however ignored the provisions even though their members participated fully in the enactment of the law.
The Senate Committee was headed by Ahmed Lawan, a ranking senator, representing Yobe North Senatorial District.
Other members of the Senate Committee
were Abdul Ningi (Vice Chairman), Olubumi Adetunbi, Abdulminin Hassan,
Yusuf Musa, Umaru Dahiru, and Ayo Akinyelure.
Others are Domingo Obende, Nwagu Igwe and Barata Ahmed.
The House Committee was chaired by
Solomon Adeola, then representing Alimosho Federal Constituency of Lagos
State. He is currently senator representing Lagos West Senatorial
District.
There were 41 other members of the committee.
The documents, which this newspaper
obtained exclusively, showed that the two panels engaged in banking
transactions totalling N2.90 billion in two accounts – 0022999033 and
0022999040 – domiciled in the Guarantee Trust Bank, some of which
breached the provisions of the Act.
Altogether, members of the committees made 139 withdrawals totalling N1.45 billion from the two accounts.
Several of the withdrawals were made in gross violation of the nation’s money laundering law.
A total of N112million withdrawn from
Account Number 0022999033 and N115million withdrawn from Account Number
0022999040 appeared an infringement on the law.
For instance on March 30, 2012, one D.E
Abdullahi, believed to be an official of one of the committees and
apparently acting on the instructions of the leadership of the
committee, withdrew a little over N5m from Account number 0022999033
domiciled in Area 3, Garki, Abuja, branch of GTB in violation of the
Act.
According to the documents, that day, he withdrew N1.79m, N2.5m and N1.44m in three different transactions totalling N5.73m.
Mr. Abdullahi also withdrew N18.37m in 10
transactions on April 2, 2012. The withdrawals were N1.92m, N1.22m,
N1.95m, N1.40m, N1.24m, N2.26m, N1.25m, N1.95m, N2.80m and N2.35m.
On July 18, 2012, Mr. Abdullahi made six withdrawals. The withdrawals totalled N18.06million.
The multiple withdrawals he made that day were N3.97m, N2.80m, N2.25m, N3.90m, N2.23m and N2.90m.
On July 26, 2012, he withdrew a total of
N26.46m in eight transactions -N2.31m, N4.63m, N2.29m, N4.63m, N2.14m,
N4.63m, N4.48m and N1.32m.
Four days later – July 30 – he was
engaged in 10 transactions. The withdrawals were N30,000.00,
N315,000.00, N32,000.00, N105,000.00, N860,500.00, N750,750.00,
N10,000.00, N225,000.00, N2.58m and N3.64m totalling N8.55m.
In nine transactions on October 11, 2012,
Mr. Abdullahi made a total withdrawal of N28m in further violation of
the money laundering law. On that day, he withdrew N3.11m, N3.22m,
N3.94m, N4.13m, N3.13m and N2.07m. Others were N2.40m, N3.35m and
N2.65m.
On March 11, 2013, while Mr. Abdullahi
withdrew N4.80m, one Joseph Oko withdrew N1.79m totalling N6.59m from
the same account – 0022999033.
From Account Number 0022999040, one P.A.
Giwa made three transactions in the bank on May 21, 2012. He withdrew
N1.31m, N4.46m and N1.005m totalling N6.78m from the account.
Mr. Adeola, the then House Committee
chairman, on July 12, 2012, made three cash withdrawals totalling over
N10m from this account. He withdrew N3m, N4.00m and N3m,min violation of
the law.
He had previously on April 4, 2012, withdrew N4.80m.
Again, Mr. Adeola returned to the bank on September 26 to make two cash withdrawals, N8.98m and N9.79m totalling N18m
That same day, Auwal Jatau, a member of
the committee, Farouk Yakubu Dawaki and Olu Adenikunju, in separate cash
transactions, withdrew N3.56m, N2.61m and N4.58m respectively,
totalling N10.96m from the account.
Mr. Giwa again withdrew a total of N12.64m in three instalments on October 19, 2012.
The sums were N2.94m, N6.75m and N2.94m.
The sums were N2.94m, N6.75m and N2.94m.
On November 7, Mr. Adeola further violated the money laundering law when he withdrew N6.76m cash from the account.
He also received N15.03m on December 19,
2012 in two transactions of N7.15m and N7.87m. Mr. Jatau had earlier on
that day picked up N4.02m from the account.
In 2013, the violation continued unabated.
On February 13, 2013, for instance, three
cash withdrawals were made from the account although the names of the
beneficiaries were not listed.
According to the document, the sums of N1.99m, N4.50m and N5m, totalling N11.49m, were withdrawn from the account.
On the same day, Messrs. Adenikinju and Jatau withdrew N4.43m and N3.82m respectively, totalling N8.30m.
Mr. Adeola also withdrew N5.29m on March
27, 2013 and Mr. Adenikinju N5.04m on May 3, 2013, in violation of the
money laundering law.
The documents also indicate that Mr.
Lawan, unlike Mr. Adeola, only personally withdrew cash once from the
bank. The senator, who failed in his bid to be elected President of the
8th Senate last June 9, personally collected N50,000 on April 4, 2013.
The transaction did not violate the law.
Efforts to reach Mr. Lawan were not successful as multiple calls to his telephone did not connect.
When PREMIUM TIMES contacted Mr. Adeola
via telephone last Thursday, he said it was not his place to understand
how individual committee members operated their bank accounts.
A text message was then sent to him
explaining that the accounts in question were that of the committee and
not individual members account, but he did not respond.
The Public Accounts Committee, PAC,
headed by opposition members in both chambers, is responsible for
monitoring accountability and transparency in the conduct of government
business.
It is the only committee of the National Assembly mentioned by the 1999 Constitution.
Section 85 (5) of the constitution states
that ‘The Auditor-General shall, within ninety days of receipt of the
Accountant-General’s financial statement, submit his reports under this
section to each House of the National Assembly and each House shall
cause the reports to be considered by a committee of the house of the
National Assembly responsible for public accounts.”
The Senate Standing Order listed the committee’s responsibilities to include:
– (a) to examine the accounts showing the
appropriation of the sums granted by the Senate to meet the public
expenditure; together with the Auditor’s report thereon. The Committee
shall, for the purposes of discharging that duty, have power to send for
any person, papers and records, to report from time to time to the
Senate and to sit notwithstanding the adjournment of the Senate;
(b) the Committee shall have power to
examine any accounts or report of statutory Corporations and Boards
after they have been laid on the table for the Senate and to report
thereon from time to time to the Senate and to sit notwithstanding the
adjournment of the Senate; and
(c) the Committee shall have power to
enquire the report of the Auditor-General of the Federation with respect
to any prepayment audit query which had been overruled by the Chief
Executive of the Ministry, Extra-Ministerial Departments or Agency of
the Federal Government and Courts of the Federation and to report same
to the Senate.
Sections 122 of the House of Representatives Standing Order also listed similar functions for its public accounts committee.
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