NFIU: We’ll punish those who leaked letter on bank account details of public officers

The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) says it is investigating how its letter to commercial banks requesting the account details of principal government officers was leaked.

In a statement on Monday, Ahmed Dikko, NFIU spokesperson, described the report that the agency is probing the senate president, speaker of the house of representatives and the chief justice of Nigeria as untrue.

Dikko said the agency’s leaked confidential letter to banks requesting the account details of principal government officers was a regular practice in order to protect public funds and assets.

He said the agency is investigating how the letter was leaked and that sanctions will be imposed on the offender.

“It will be recalled that a new government was inaugurated in May, 2019. The officer who initiated the unauthorised letter was also taking the initiative to update the PEPs list,” he said.

“This list includes politicians and political appointees in all organs of government. The update exercise which is a regular practice in order to protect public funds and other assets is also in accordance with global best practice.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the Senate President, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Chief Justice of the Federation as well as senators, members of the House of Representatives, justices and other members of the judiciary are not under investigation by the NFIU.

“Having been aware that the leaked letter was not subjected to the appropriate level of authorization before transmission, the NFIU has commenced investigation to unravel the persons and the factors that led to the inadvertent circumvention of our internal process in this isolated case with a view to applying appropriate sanctions as deterrence.”