Hypocrisy: How the previous National Assembly broke the law it enacted

by Emeka Nwankwo

According to Premium Times, members of the House and 7th Senate committee on Public Accounts fell afoul of the Money Laundering Act during their tenure in the National Assembly – a law which was enacted by them.

The Public Account Committee is saddled with the task of ensuring accountability in the country’s financial system.

However, members of the committee allegedly withdrew several huge sums repeatedly, thus contravening the law on money laundering.

The Act states that:
“No person or body corporate shall, except in a transact through a financial institution, make or accept cash payment of a sum exceeding

1. N5, 000,000.00, or its equivalent, in the case of individuals, or

2. N10, 000,000.00 or its equivalent in the case of a body corporate.

“Any financial institution or designated financial institution that fails to comply with the above provision by making appropriate compliance report to the regulatory authorities commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine of not less than N250, 000 for an individual and not more than N1,000,000 for a body corporate, for each day during which the offence continues.”

In total, members of the committee made 139 withdrawal of a total sum of N1.45 billion from two accounts domiciled with Guarantee Trust Bank (GTB).

According to Premium Times, representatives of the committee D. E Abdullahi and P. A. Giwa, acting on the instructions of the committee, allegedly made several withdrawals from the two accounts. The withdrawals contravened the Money Laundering Act.

While the House committee chairman, Rep. Solomon Adeola, made several withdraws that also broke the law he and his colleagues enacted.
The senate committee was headed by Sen. Ahmed Lawal. The committee had a total of 41 members.

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