The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has said it is beaming its searchlight on suspected fraudsters using real estate for money laundering.
Speaking during a training for journalists on effective reporting of economic and financial crimes in Benin City, Edo, a lawyer with the commission, Chris Mishela, said many estates in Abuja and other areas were built with illicit funds.
Mishela said one of the objectives of the training was to keep journalists abreast of the framework of the new anti-money laundering Act 2022 and the role they were expected to play.
“As it is, I am talking about Abuja, you see so many estates coming all over Abuja and more.
“The sources of these funds are unlawful; the funds are illegally gotten either from the government or from an international crime that is used to launder through estate business.
“So, EFCC is actually working to look into that dimension and the new money laundering Act has provided an opening for the government to look into the aspect of real estate as we have seen under the Act,” the News Agency of Nigeria quoted him as saying.
“Real estate is one of the designated and non-designated professions that are also under our obligation, under the establishment to do a full disclosure.
“It is an investigation that is going on; not that we have identified any specific entity to these proceeds of crime, but we are working to unravel what those areas are,” he added.
In her presentation, the Assistant Commander, Public Affairs Unit of EFCC in Abuja, Mr Dele Oyewale, urged journalists to collaborate with the commission through investigative reporting.
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