November 15, (THEWILL) – The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arrested one Mustapha Muhammed, alias Muaspaha Naira.
A statement issued Tuesday, by the Spokesperson of the Anti-graft agency, Wilson Uwujaren, 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 said 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 a useful statement while the investigation continues”, he said.
Meanwhile, the EFCC on Tuesday, said that the 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 sanitising 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 the eminent personalities invited to discuss the topic ‘’Sanitising 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 arrests.”
He stressed that the Commission considers foreign exchange malpractice as an economic crime against the Nigerian state, adding that the EFCC, 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.”
