The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) has denied requesting banks to provide account details of Senate President Ahmed Lawan, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, and other principal officers of the National Assembly.
Reports had said that the unit made the request in a letter dated September 10, 2019, and signed by NFIU Associate Director, Analysis and Compliance, Fehintola Salisu.
It was also alleged that the unit directed chief compliance officers of banks to release account details of all legislators and judicial officials in the country including the Chief Justice of the Federation, Tanko Muhammad.
However, the NFIU in a statement on Saturday by its chief media analyst, Ahmed Dikko, said the reports were not true.
“Such reports are not true, in line with its powers as enacted in the NFIU Act, the unit already has access to details of all bank accounts in the country and does not, therefore, need to write to commercial banks asking for the same information,” Mr Dikko said.
“As a matter of fact, relevant reporting entities such as investigative and other law enforcement agencies always rely on the NFIU for information on bank details of individuals and corporate body under investigation as they go about carrying out their functions. Such is a mandatory reporting process.
“The unit does not also make blanket requests to all banks as is being speculated in the reports. The media and indeed the general public are, therefore, requested to disregard such reports.”